Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Cairo
Formerly in the collection of Malak Hanem Mazloum
Inherited from the above's father, Mr Ahmed Pasha Mazloum, former Egyptian Minister of Finance (1894-1908), Alexandria

Mahmoud Said was commissioned to paint a portrait of the wife of his maternal uncle Ahmed Pacha Mazloum, Minister of Finance of Egypt in the early 1900's , Mrs. Trandil Mazloum some years after her death. Mahmoud Said – Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Valerie Didier Hess and Hussam Rashwan, Skira, Milan, 2017, 2nd vol. Drawings, pp.820-823.

H.E. Ahmed Mazloum Pasha (1878-1928), Minister of Finance (1894-1908) - Cairo In 1906

THE ARTIST

"Mahmoud Said personalized and raised the worthiness of the Egyptian woman. She is the great granddaughter of Nefertiti, the peasant who works hard in the field, the maid who serves in a aristocratic home, the labourer who pulls water from the Nile. One ponders whether her beauty is the interpretation of his imagination or the plain revelation of her aspirations" – Fatenn Mostafa Kanafani

Mahmoud Said's body of work is considered as one of the central pillars of twentieth century Egyptian art. Born into an aristocratic Alexandrian family, Mahmoud Said was an unlikely artist. He was the son of Mohammed Pasha Said, who was Egypt's Prime Minister during the reign of King Faud I, he later became uncle to Queen Farida, the first wife of King Farouk. Throughout his lifetime Said existed in the Milieu of the Egyptian gentry, a subject matter wholly rejected in his artworks, reflecting a sincere desire to divert his artistic gaze towards the land of Egypt and of common Egyptians, a stark contrast to the Euro-centric aristocracy which surrounded him.

Originally destined for a legal career, Mahmoud Said graduated from the French School of Law in 1919. He worked as a lawyer, prosecutor, and then as judge in Mansouria, Alexandria and Cairo. He resigned from legal work in 1947, to dedicate himself solely to his art.

Mahmoud Said was taught by the Italian artist, Amelia Casonato Daforno, a resident of Alexandria who had studied at the Florence Academy. Said quickly learnt the classical methods of drawing faces, harmonization of colours and shading. He took further lessons by with another Florentine artist Artoro Zananeri, before leaving for Paris in 1920 for further study.

Mahmoud Said's crowning achievement was the application of a distinctly European aesthetic to strictly Egyptian and Nationalistic subject matters. Said participated in international exhibitions in Venice, Madrid and Alexandria. He staged exhibitions in New York, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Alexandria and Cairo. He was admitted to the French Legion d'honneur, winning a medal for Honorary Merit in 1951, and in 1960 was the first artist to be awarded the State Merit Award for Arts by Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser.