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Lot Essay
Le Nil à Louxor (Chadouf) is a beautiful early example of Mahmoud Saïd’s paintings, coming from the Zulficar family, direct descendants to the artist. The work was painted in 1918, at a time when the artist just finished studying under Italian painter Amelia Casonato Da Forno (1878-1969) in Alexandria between 1912 and 1916, later to train with Arturo Zanieri (1870-1955). It was just afterwards Saïd began his career studying law and received his degree in 1919. In an attempt of reacquainting himself with his love for the arts, he pursued a cultural trip across Europe attending classes at prestigious Académie Julian.
In this painting, Mahmoud Saïd includes one of his beloved motifs, the quintessentially Egyptian vessel called felucca, peacefully floating on the Nile alongside fellah sitting along the coast. The felucca casts a shadow along the river, where Saïd subtly plays with the mirroring effects of the water, delicately blending in the reflections of each element from his composition, with the bright beige and brown tones of the Nile, as well as the white touches from the felucca sails and the olive green of the trees along the Nile riverbanks. These thick touches of various pigments that masterfully achieve the effect of the water's transparence due to Saïd's skillful color combinations underline the calmness and almost stillness of the scene represented, and soon became one of the Alexandrian artist's signature techniques.
Painted in 1918, it seems that Said was not as rigid with his composition than he was for later works. All these compositional lines converge at the top of the sailboat's mast in the foreground, creating a peaceful balance within the composition yet at the same time breathing in a mystical dynamism to this scene on the Nile, very characteristic of Mahmoud Saïd's pictorial structure. The golden light emanating in the central composition simultaneously achieves a mystical dynamism and an eternal standstill of this Nile scene. This blend of past and present, commonly seen throughout Saïd's oeuvre, enables him to capture the essence of his country's history and people, and to emphasise their resistance to all forms of modernisation in the context of a changing nation seeking independence from colonial powers. The reflection of the land into the waters of the Nile, the fellah and felucca combine all these various elements into one, embodying the intrinsic values of Egypt.
In this painting, Mahmoud Saïd includes one of his beloved motifs, the quintessentially Egyptian vessel called felucca, peacefully floating on the Nile alongside fellah sitting along the coast. The felucca casts a shadow along the river, where Saïd subtly plays with the mirroring effects of the water, delicately blending in the reflections of each element from his composition, with the bright beige and brown tones of the Nile, as well as the white touches from the felucca sails and the olive green of the trees along the Nile riverbanks. These thick touches of various pigments that masterfully achieve the effect of the water's transparence due to Saïd's skillful color combinations underline the calmness and almost stillness of the scene represented, and soon became one of the Alexandrian artist's signature techniques.
Painted in 1918, it seems that Said was not as rigid with his composition than he was for later works. All these compositional lines converge at the top of the sailboat's mast in the foreground, creating a peaceful balance within the composition yet at the same time breathing in a mystical dynamism to this scene on the Nile, very characteristic of Mahmoud Saïd's pictorial structure. The golden light emanating in the central composition simultaneously achieves a mystical dynamism and an eternal standstill of this Nile scene. This blend of past and present, commonly seen throughout Saïd's oeuvre, enables him to capture the essence of his country's history and people, and to emphasise their resistance to all forms of modernisation in the context of a changing nation seeking independence from colonial powers. The reflection of the land into the waters of the Nile, the fellah and felucca combine all these various elements into one, embodying the intrinsic values of Egypt.