Ismail Shammout was one of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were expelled from their homeland, Palestine, in 1948. At 18, Ismail was a living witness to the tragic events that befell the Palestinian people. He was not a mere bystander but was actually one of the victims. Most of Palestinians were uprooted from their homeland to become refugees living in miserable camps that were hostility-built in the West Bank, Gaza and some other Arab countries. Ismail was one of those refugees.
Ismail’s talent was quite apparent since childhood. In his Palestinian hometown, Lydda, he used to portray the beautiful landscape of Palestine and other subjects that attracted his attention. A year after the calamity that struck the Palestinian people in 1948, Ismail resumed painting while still living in a refugee camp. His topics at that early stage were emanating from the painful reality the Palestinian refugees were living in.

In 1950, Ismail left for Cairo, Egypt, where he commenced his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1954, moved to Rome to coninue his artistic studies at the Academy of Fine Arts.

The Palestinian issue, with its tragic images, was his main subject during the fifties of this century.