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Lot Essay
A tribute to the sanctity of families, Omar El-Nagdi’s painting The Flute Player celebrates the beauty inherent in the modern Egyptian family. Painted in 1959 while El-Nagdi was studying art in Venice, this work is a fine example of one of the many styles and themes he would develop over the course of his long and varied artistic career.
El-Nagdi received his artistic education first at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Cairo under the guidance of the famous academic painter and art professor Ahmed Sabry, after which he pursued a focused study on frescoes and mosaics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1959. It was during his travels between Venice and Rome from 1959-1960 that El-Nagdi would encounter the avant-garde artists working in those cities. Notably, it was the renowned Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico that mentored El-Nagdi for a time, undoubtedly influencing the young artist both intellectually and artistically. Due to his exposure and participation in these artistic spheres in Rome and Venice, El-Nagdi participated in several group shows, showing his works alongside Pablo Picasso in a show in Sardinia, Italy as well as Salvador Dalí in Saragossa, Spain in 1961.
Although as capable with watercolour, sculpture and mosaic as he is with oil paints, the present work shows his deft mastery with the latter. In a letter penned in January 1962 to the original owner “This picture…is an oil in the style of an Ancient Egyptian fresco…The colours are therefore not transparent or brilliant as my waxes, but more delicate and muted in tone…I like The Flute Player very much myself.’
Although the work was titled Egyptian Villagers in a book published on El-Nagdi’s work in 1963, the work’s title highlights the artist’s concentration on the metaphorical harmony of the scene: a male figure representing the father stands facing a female figure, ostensibly the mother, as a small female figure stands underneath between their legs. The parents’ arms hold her close to them, creating an inverted triangular connection of the subjects between their three heads which unconsciously pulls the viewer’s gaze to create a tight sense of connection between the subjects. A precise arch is drawn in the background as a backdrop that perfectly frames and contains this vignette of family life. It would not be remiss to infer that El-Nagdi would have implemented the use of the triangle as a symbol of the holy trinity – a direct reference to his studies of Italian frescoes and Renaissance masterpieces – and thus highlights the universality of the notion of family in a subtle reference to the most iconic family in art whilst in itself taking on an icon-like manner that is exemplified through its vertical composition.
Composed with careful geometric precision, El-Nagdi pays careful attention to shapes and colours throughout the entire work; this is evident in the shape of the child’s triangular yellow dress, while the subjects’ slippers are also triangular in shape and outline. With a keen eye for colour, El-Nagdi paints the mother’s headdress in a coral orange, her skirt in darker shades of reds. The symbolism of the oranges and reds of her dress highlight the mother’s connection to the creation of life with the very warmth and blood of her being; in contrast to the stable coolness of the father’s galabeya robe in a patchwork of blue tones. The brown water urn, painted directly opposite to the figure of the mother, connects the symbolism of the mother with the water as sources of life.
Although the daughter figure looks directly at the viewer with two eyes, her parents’ collective responsibility and unified purpose towards their child is symbolised with the one eye they share which looks not so much at the viewer of the work, but down towards the young child.
Impressive in its’ sheer size, El-Nagdi's work also elicits the sense of a wall drawing- as the artist mentioned in his letter– yet it is a testament to the artist's appreciation of his historical and cultural heritage that the flat, linear compositional style of the work evokes Ancient Egyptian figuration and composition, particularly when considering the angular manner of the drawn faces of the figures of the father and mother.
The Flute Player might indeed reference Egyptian villagers found in the rural countryside, but by highlighting the often-used Egyptian art motif of the peasant man, woman and child, El-Nagdi valorises simultaneously the humble peasant and the concept of family, imbuing the viewer’s consideration of the subjects with a high degree of veneration. Equally his inclusion of the flute as a whimsical musical element adds a sense of rhythmic lyricism that no doubt suggests both a metaphorical and literal sense of harmony and peace within the work.
El-Nagdi received his artistic education first at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Cairo under the guidance of the famous academic painter and art professor Ahmed Sabry, after which he pursued a focused study on frescoes and mosaics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1959. It was during his travels between Venice and Rome from 1959-1960 that El-Nagdi would encounter the avant-garde artists working in those cities. Notably, it was the renowned Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico that mentored El-Nagdi for a time, undoubtedly influencing the young artist both intellectually and artistically. Due to his exposure and participation in these artistic spheres in Rome and Venice, El-Nagdi participated in several group shows, showing his works alongside Pablo Picasso in a show in Sardinia, Italy as well as Salvador Dalí in Saragossa, Spain in 1961.
Although as capable with watercolour, sculpture and mosaic as he is with oil paints, the present work shows his deft mastery with the latter. In a letter penned in January 1962 to the original owner “This picture…is an oil in the style of an Ancient Egyptian fresco…The colours are therefore not transparent or brilliant as my waxes, but more delicate and muted in tone…I like The Flute Player very much myself.’
Although the work was titled Egyptian Villagers in a book published on El-Nagdi’s work in 1963, the work’s title highlights the artist’s concentration on the metaphorical harmony of the scene: a male figure representing the father stands facing a female figure, ostensibly the mother, as a small female figure stands underneath between their legs. The parents’ arms hold her close to them, creating an inverted triangular connection of the subjects between their three heads which unconsciously pulls the viewer’s gaze to create a tight sense of connection between the subjects. A precise arch is drawn in the background as a backdrop that perfectly frames and contains this vignette of family life. It would not be remiss to infer that El-Nagdi would have implemented the use of the triangle as a symbol of the holy trinity – a direct reference to his studies of Italian frescoes and Renaissance masterpieces – and thus highlights the universality of the notion of family in a subtle reference to the most iconic family in art whilst in itself taking on an icon-like manner that is exemplified through its vertical composition.
Composed with careful geometric precision, El-Nagdi pays careful attention to shapes and colours throughout the entire work; this is evident in the shape of the child’s triangular yellow dress, while the subjects’ slippers are also triangular in shape and outline. With a keen eye for colour, El-Nagdi paints the mother’s headdress in a coral orange, her skirt in darker shades of reds. The symbolism of the oranges and reds of her dress highlight the mother’s connection to the creation of life with the very warmth and blood of her being; in contrast to the stable coolness of the father’s galabeya robe in a patchwork of blue tones. The brown water urn, painted directly opposite to the figure of the mother, connects the symbolism of the mother with the water as sources of life.
Although the daughter figure looks directly at the viewer with two eyes, her parents’ collective responsibility and unified purpose towards their child is symbolised with the one eye they share which looks not so much at the viewer of the work, but down towards the young child.
Impressive in its’ sheer size, El-Nagdi's work also elicits the sense of a wall drawing- as the artist mentioned in his letter– yet it is a testament to the artist's appreciation of his historical and cultural heritage that the flat, linear compositional style of the work evokes Ancient Egyptian figuration and composition, particularly when considering the angular manner of the drawn faces of the figures of the father and mother.
The Flute Player might indeed reference Egyptian villagers found in the rural countryside, but by highlighting the often-used Egyptian art motif of the peasant man, woman and child, El-Nagdi valorises simultaneously the humble peasant and the concept of family, imbuing the viewer’s consideration of the subjects with a high degree of veneration. Equally his inclusion of the flute as a whimsical musical element adds a sense of rhythmic lyricism that no doubt suggests both a metaphorical and literal sense of harmony and peace within the work.