Lot 319: MAHMOUD MOKHTAR

EL AMIRA
signed, numbered No.2 and stamped on the side

34.5 by 6.2 by 8cm.; 14 by 2 1/2 by 3 1/8 in.

bronze with granite base

Executed <EM>circa</EM> 1920.

Acquired directly from the artist
Thence by descent to the previous owner
Private Collection, Egypt

El Amira is an exceptionally rare example of one of Egypt's greatest modern sculptors. As a child Mahmoud Moukhtar was led to believe that sculptures and images were idolatrous, and according to his memoirs, there had been no practising sculptors in Egypt for 1300 years. It is testament to his wayward character that he went on to acquire the skills of a sculptor.

Moukhtar came to be considered one of the foremost nationalist heroes of Egypt, demonstrated by his most famous commission: the monumental pink granite Egyptian Awakening, representing a female figure removing her veil and standing tall beside a sphinx. The female figure played an important role in Moukhtar's oeuvre in her guise as a peasant woman, the fellaha, had been adopted as an emblem for an entire cultural movement and represented the awakening of a nation.

The woman signified art, the veil embodied female emancipation, and the peasant represented Egypt and her nationalism. El Amira is a rare superb example of Moukhtar's work, she is a powerful nationalist symbol that is beautifully cast in an effortless marriage of the Pharaonic and the Art Deco, the oriental and the occidental.