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Lot Essay
Christie's is proud to offer the present work by Mahmoud Saïd as it is an exciting, yet mysterious, discovery. Although the work appears to never have been published or exhibited, it epitomises the essence of Mahmoud Saïd's iconic style. Several recurring motifs of the Alexandrian master's oeuvre feature in this beautiful jewel-like composition such as the veiled women, Alexandria's corniche and the fishermen in the background, the sailing boats and the strangeness of the white cat stoically posing in the foreground.
The painting is closely related to a much larger composition, that has been extensively documented and was featured in several important exhibitions dedicated to the artist, however its current location is unknown.
'The drawing of lines is the confirmation of clarity that I have reached at the end of the road. That is why you find that many of my sketches are in colour, not pencil. I start with colour because I cannot see lines; I see colour only. I found this is true for Cézanne and I am convinced with it. Nature does not have lines but moving dimensions, and their relationship with other dimensions close by is what forms lines. A line is in fact an abstract, and this is why abstract art clearly uses lines. Of course, this is true for coloured sketches, with the exception of the sketches I draw quickly when focusing on something that I want to register to be able to remember it later on.'
(Mahmoud Saïd quoted in an interview with Dr. Mostafa Suef).
Like the Flemish Baroque painter, Peter-Paul Rubens, whom he admired, Saïd produced detailed modelli or finished preparatory oil colour sketches for some of his largest and most challenging compositions. As such, these modelli are masterpieces on their own, scarcely bearing any changes once reproduced in the final painting and they represent the direct final product of the artist's mind and conception of his subject matter.
The present painting, particularly the three central female figures, resonate the style and subject matter found in his most monumental and important work, La Ville, the centrepiece at the entrance of the Museum of Modern Art in Cairo. The vocabulary he uses to describe the beauty of these Bahari women reveals the artist's fascination with the everyday sceneries he witnessed along Alexandria's corniche.
The present work is intrinsically Egyptian, not only by its setting but especially through the presence of veiled women with bright red pulpous lips. There are only a handful of paintings in Mahmoud Saïd's oeuvre that depict women wearing a veil. In all his depictions of covered women, Saïd uses the veil to enhance their beauty, seductiveness, mystery, but also to emphasize their Alexandrian features. One of his finest and most comprehensive preparatory sketches, Le Chat Blanc (esquisse) is undeniably a masterpiece on its own.
The painting is closely related to a much larger composition, that has been extensively documented and was featured in several important exhibitions dedicated to the artist, however its current location is unknown.
'The drawing of lines is the confirmation of clarity that I have reached at the end of the road. That is why you find that many of my sketches are in colour, not pencil. I start with colour because I cannot see lines; I see colour only. I found this is true for Cézanne and I am convinced with it. Nature does not have lines but moving dimensions, and their relationship with other dimensions close by is what forms lines. A line is in fact an abstract, and this is why abstract art clearly uses lines. Of course, this is true for coloured sketches, with the exception of the sketches I draw quickly when focusing on something that I want to register to be able to remember it later on.'
(Mahmoud Saïd quoted in an interview with Dr. Mostafa Suef).
Like the Flemish Baroque painter, Peter-Paul Rubens, whom he admired, Saïd produced detailed modelli or finished preparatory oil colour sketches for some of his largest and most challenging compositions. As such, these modelli are masterpieces on their own, scarcely bearing any changes once reproduced in the final painting and they represent the direct final product of the artist's mind and conception of his subject matter.
The present painting, particularly the three central female figures, resonate the style and subject matter found in his most monumental and important work, La Ville, the centrepiece at the entrance of the Museum of Modern Art in Cairo. The vocabulary he uses to describe the beauty of these Bahari women reveals the artist's fascination with the everyday sceneries he witnessed along Alexandria's corniche.
The present work is intrinsically Egyptian, not only by its setting but especially through the presence of veiled women with bright red pulpous lips. There are only a handful of paintings in Mahmoud Saïd's oeuvre that depict women wearing a veil. In all his depictions of covered women, Saïd uses the veil to enhance their beauty, seductiveness, mystery, but also to emphasize their Alexandrian features. One of his finest and most comprehensive preparatory sketches, Le Chat Blanc (esquisse) is undeniably a masterpiece on its own.