Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, California
Acquired directly from the above in Cairo, circa 1991

Note:
Two other known versions of the present painting exist: one smaller version in a private Alexandrian collection and one unspecified work published on the artists site in black and white. For a Gouache on paper study of the present work see: Moustafa Hussein and Faqzia El-Ashaal,(i)Hussein Bikar(/i), Page 39.

As an artist, Bicar was considered a tour de force of talent; teacher, illustrator, painter, poet and musician, Bicar embraced the arts in their totality achieving renown in many of the fields he applied his trade to.

Born in 1913 in Alexandria, Egypt, He graduated from Fine Arts College in 1933, and subsequently from the Ahlia School for Painting. He taught at, and eventually headed the Painting Department of the Faculty of Arts at Qena at 1955. He was a founder of the Helwan Wax Museum.

In 1944, Bicar began his career in journalism when he became, with Ahmad Sabry, Mustapha Amin and Ali Amin, one of the founding fathers of the prestigious Akhbar el-Youm newspaper, doing drawings often accompanied by his own poetry. His painting "The Eighth Wonder", depicting the transportation of the temple of Ramses II to Abu Simbel is widely regarded as a classic of modern Egyptian painting.

Bikar was honoured with several awards including, the Golden Medal of Honor from the Industrial and Agriculture Exhibition in 1949, the Medal of Arts and Science in 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser Prize in 1975, the State of Merit Award in 1978, the Merit Medal in 1980, and shortly before his death in 2000, Mubarak Award.

Adept at drawing for children, Bicar also became a foreign correspondent who wrote and illustrated stories of his travels. He produced sketches of news and feature subjects when photography was not common in his homeland. In his later years, Bicar was better known for painting portraits, particularly of women. He also wrote criticism and taught for many years at Cairo's Fine Arts Academy.

Bicar's distinction as an artist lies in the economy and terseness of his compositions; his ability to apply pure and simple lines to landscape and anatomy was central to the sense enigma and quiet mystery surrounding his paintings. Stylized, and heavily influenced by his career as an illustrator, Bicar's works are imbued with a palpable mystique.