Mahmoud SAÏD ✿

Mahmoud Said (1897-1964) was an modern Egyptian painter-female figure, peasants, religion, landscape. Born into the aristocratic circle of Alexandria, he was the son of former Egyptian Prime Minister Mohamed Saïd Pacha (1863-1928), and the uncle of Queen Farida of Egypt (1921-1988). He graduated from the French School of Law in 1919.

He started painting in his teens, yet his social background pressurized him to become a judge. Painting remained a hobby until he permanently resigned from his legal functions aged 50. Yet Saïd succeeded in forging his own unique style, deeply rooted in the true Egyptian character and daily life he observed around him, fused with his Western artistic training.

Saïd's intrinsically Egyptian style emerged in conjunction with the rise of nationalism in Egypt, a country which had been under an accumulation of 2,400 years of foreign domination from the Persians until its declaration of independence from the British protectorate in 1922.

Hence Saïd's oeuvre undeniably paved the way for the search of a national identity through art, giving birth to Modern Egyptian Art. To some extent, this dynamic artistic scene in Egypt combined with its political situation sparked similar nationalistic expressions through art in surrounding Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.