010303).jpg?w=1)
010248).jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Christie’s is pleased to re-offer La fille aux yeux verts (réplique) this year. A rediscovered masterpiece by the pioneering Egyptian modernist Mahmoud Saïd, whose mysterious subject and complex provenance have captivated scholars and collectors alike. Initially scheduled for Christie’s Dubai in October 2007, the painting was mistakenly withdrawn due to confusion with the original La fille aux yeux verts (1931), which has long been part of the Museum of Modern Art in Cairo. The 1932 réplique, once in the collection of Charles Terrasse, the museum’s first director, was conclusively authenticated following the 2017 publication of Saïd’s catalogue raisonné, resolving a decade-old art historical ambiguity. Thus it was offered for the first time at Christie's London in 2017 (price achieved: 175,000 GBP).
The practice of creating authentic replicas of one’s own work has a long precedent in Western art history, seen in the oeuvres of Hyacinthe Rigaud, Peter Paul Rubens, and Paul Cézanne. In Saïd’s case, the inscription on the reverse affirms his intentional authorship and transparency: the replica is signed, titled, and dated with a clear distinction between the original and its twin. This practice, though rare within Saïd’s corpus, was not unprecedented, his celebrated Belles de Bahari also exists in two versions, the second commissioned by a close family friend and dated 1948.
Painted during a pivotal period in Saïd’s early 1930s portraiture, La fille aux yeux verts (réplique) exemplifies the archetype of the "Mahmoudsaïdian" woman: sensuous, enigmatic, and composed with a blend of Egyptian and hybridised Mediterranean features. With her almond-shaped green eyes, auburn hair, and stylised anatomy, the figure transcends individuality to become a symbol of Egyptian feminine beauty, tinged with a deliberate ambiguity. In stripping the subject of a specific name, Saïd universalizes her presence, lending her an aura of timeless seduction and mystery that recurs throughout his oeuvre, in works like Invitation au Voyage (1932), Baigneuses à la périssoire (1932), and Belles de Bahari (1935).
Both aesthetically and historically, La fille aux yeux verts (réplique) occupies a vital space in Mahmoud Saïd’s legacy. It stands not merely as a repetition of form, but as a conscious act of preservation, of a subject, a sentiment, and a painter’s hand at its most assured.
The practice of creating authentic replicas of one’s own work has a long precedent in Western art history, seen in the oeuvres of Hyacinthe Rigaud, Peter Paul Rubens, and Paul Cézanne. In Saïd’s case, the inscription on the reverse affirms his intentional authorship and transparency: the replica is signed, titled, and dated with a clear distinction between the original and its twin. This practice, though rare within Saïd’s corpus, was not unprecedented, his celebrated Belles de Bahari also exists in two versions, the second commissioned by a close family friend and dated 1948.
Painted during a pivotal period in Saïd’s early 1930s portraiture, La fille aux yeux verts (réplique) exemplifies the archetype of the "Mahmoudsaïdian" woman: sensuous, enigmatic, and composed with a blend of Egyptian and hybridised Mediterranean features. With her almond-shaped green eyes, auburn hair, and stylised anatomy, the figure transcends individuality to become a symbol of Egyptian feminine beauty, tinged with a deliberate ambiguity. In stripping the subject of a specific name, Saïd universalizes her presence, lending her an aura of timeless seduction and mystery that recurs throughout his oeuvre, in works like Invitation au Voyage (1932), Baigneuses à la périssoire (1932), and Belles de Bahari (1935).
Both aesthetically and historically, La fille aux yeux verts (réplique) occupies a vital space in Mahmoud Saïd’s legacy. It stands not merely as a repetition of form, but as a conscious act of preservation, of a subject, a sentiment, and a painter’s hand at its most assured.