Noor Soussi
Head of Department
Lot 37*
Kamel El-Telmissany(Egypt, 1915-1972)The Crucifixion
25 November 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£20,000 - £30,000
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Nima Sagharchi
Group Head
Lylia Hafiz
Sale Coordinator
Kamel El-Telmissany (Egypt, 1915-1972)
The Crucifixion
mixed media on paper, framed
signed "Telmissany" and dated "1941" (lower middle), executed in 1941
61.5 x 46cm (24 3/16 x 18 1/8in).
mixed media on paper, framed
signed "Telmissany" and dated "1941" (lower middle), executed in 1941
61.5 x 46cm (24 3/16 x 18 1/8in).
Footnotes
Provenance:
Property from the collection of Professor Hager El Hadidi, niece of Fouad Kamel
Originally in the collection of her mother Kadriya Kamel, the sister of Fouad Kamel
A group of rare examples of Egyptian Surrealism from the collection of Professor Hager El Hadidi, the niece of the artist Fouad Kamel
"This striking work by Telmissany takes on the subject of the Crucifixion through a surrealist lens - a theme that has long fascinated artists of the movement, from Dalí onwards. Perhaps it is the story's inherently fantastical nature that draws them in: a narrative that moves from the brutality and morbid theatre of public execution to the transcendent miracle of resurrection. By reframing this pivotal Christian image within a dreamlike, symbolic language, the artist probes the boundary between suffering and salvation, history and myth, the physical and the metaphysical."
The present and following lot are rare examples by Kamel El Telmissany, both bearing exceptional provenance and embodying his signature motifs of suffering, hardship, and human resolve. Figures appear wounded, crucified, or disenfranchised, yet rendered with empathy and conviction: hallmarks of Telmissany's deeply empathetic vision.
A founding member of the Art et Liberté movement in Cairo (1938–45), Telmissany was one of the key voices who brought Surrealism into an Egyptian and anti-colonial context. Trained at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, he rejected academic idealism in favour of confronting the brutality and alienation of modern life. His paintings and writings challenged both political oppression and social hypocrisy, fusing psychological realism with the language of dream and allegory.
Through works such as these, Telmissany affirmed art's capacity to bear witness to suffering while remaining defiantly human: the essence of Egypt's Surrealist revolt.