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Eclectic Wonders: The Collection of Timothy Egert

6^* — Louay Kayyali (Syria, 1934-1978) The Young Lovers (Al Ashiqan Al Saghiran)

£50,000 - £80,000

7^* — Naim Ismail (Syria, 1930-1979) Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Alive, son of Awake)

£40,000 - £60,000

8^* — Saliba Douaihy (Lebanon, 1915-1994) Mar Gerges Church, Ehden

£20,000 - £30,000

9^* — Jewad Selim (Iraq, 1919-1961) Still life with Statuette

£50,000 - £80,000

10^* — Mamdouh Kashlan (Syria, 1929-2022) Before The Light Fades (Kabl An Yazoul Al Djaw)

£12,000 - £15,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

11 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) Study of a Rural Family

£15,000 - £25,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

12 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) Mother and Child

£100,000 - £150,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

13 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) Public Bath

£40,000 - £60,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

14 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) H20 + AG + AiR (From the Quantum Realism Series)

£50,000 - £80,000

15^* — Sliman Mansour (Palestine, born 1947) Woman From Bethlehem

£60,000 - £80,000

16^* — Etel Adnan (Lebanon, 1925-2021) Belles Creatures

£60,000 - £80,000

17^* — Saloua Raouda Choucair (Lebanon, 1916-2017) Untitled (from the Repetitive Dual series)

£30,000 - £50,000

18^*,AR — Chaouki Choukini (Lebanon, born 1946) Equation Existentielle

£30,000 - £40,000

19^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Al Shamr

£40,000 - £60,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

20^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Arabic Image II

£30,000 - £50,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

21^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Drawings Consecrated to Love

£4,000 - £6,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

22^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Horse

£4,000 - £6,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

23^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Composition

£4,000 - £6,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

24^AR — Shafic Abboud (Lebanon, 1926-2004) Le Cafe a Gien

£2,000 - £3,000

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Lot 64^*

Mahmoud Said
(Egypt, 1897-1964)
Femme nue assise sur le lit

Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art

28 November 2017, 15:00 GMT

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £25,000 inc. premium

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Mahmoud Said (Egypt, 1897-1964)

Femme nue assise sur le lit
oil on board, framed
executed circa 1915-20
35 x 25cm (13 3/4 x 9 13/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Ahmed Pasha Mazloum, Alexandria, until 26 September 1980 (a gift from the artist); Hedayat Hanem Riad, Alexandria,: Ahmed Gueneid, Alexandria

Literature:
Valerie Didier Hess and Hussam Rashwan, Mahmoud Said: Catalogue raisonne Volume 1, Paintings, Skira Editore, 2016

"Said's breath-taking nudes are unfathomable for a fils de famille and decidedly incompatible with the local traditions and Islamic religion. The modern yet timid Said seeks to exhibit a conscious play between stricture and desire for uninhibited freedom, in search for the "essence of womanhood". At a time when controversial polemics between progressives and traditionalists were on the rise, he managed to stop short of crossing the line into an impermissible eroticism and brought out a hungry fusion of inhibition and desire to shock our morality.

A crisis of orientation loomed in Egypt, tearing it apart between calls for separation of religion and state against calls for a revival of Egypt's Islamic and Arab roots. At the same time, Said painted the naked female body and undertook to shock a conservative nation that has just accused Taha Hussein, the Dean of Contemporary Arabic literature and pioneer of the enlightenment, of blasphemy.

Acting as a loud cry from the inner depth of an artist with conflicting desires, his intense nudes show a brutal determination to liberate the native woman and glorify her as a love goddess"

- Fatenn Mostafa Kanafani - A Legacy of Dichotomies: When the International Art Market Met the "Oriental Lord"

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- Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art