Mahmoud Mokhtar, (Egypt, 1891-1934)

On the Banks of the Nile

On the Banks of the Nile
bronze sculpture
signed "M. Moukhtar" on the base, cast posthumously in 1979 by Giovanni and Angelo Nicci, Fondatori Artistici, Roma, accompanied by an invoice from the foundry, executed in October 1979
Height: 40cm

Provenance:
Acquired by the late Saleh Abdoun, Director of the Egyptian Academy of Fine Arts, 1979-1983 from Giovanni and Angelo Nicci, Fondatori Artistici, Roma in October 1979

Note:
The work is accompanied by a copy of the original foundry invoice

"Mokhtar was a devoted son of Egyptian female villagers, whom he idolized in his works as a graceful symbol of Egypt. Mokhtar is the genuine product of Egypt, he came from its countryside, he formed the conscience of a whole nation, so he has been etched in the national memory as our pioneering sculptor"
- Mohsen Shaalan

Poignant, enigmatic and graceful, "On the Banks of the Nile" is the archetypal synthesis of Mokhtar's representations of the noble Egyptian rural peasant or fellaha

Mokhtar's empathetic and stylized representations of Egyptian daily life, pronounced so touchingly in the present work, would later be regarded as the supreme expression of Egyptian artistic heritage in the twentieth century.

Tender and ennobling in its portrayal of the dignified Egyptian fellaha (or peasant woman), the sculpture is evidence of an artist who captured the true spirit of the age in his penetrative renderings of the Egyptians and their everyday plight.

Mahmoud Mokhtar is considered a pioneer of modern Egyptian art, yet he also occupies a prominent place in the history of the modern Egyptian nation. Self-styled as the first Egyptian sculptor in over two millennia, Mahmoud Mokhtar deftly blended Pharaonic imagery with a modern European sculptural aesthetic to create quintessentially nationalist Egyptian artwork.