The artist came into the world on 8 April 1897 in his father’s house in the neighbourhood of Bahari, near the famous Al-Mursi Abul-Abbas Mosque, one of Egypt’s best known Sufi shrines. He was an aristocrat through and through. In 1910 his father Mohamed Said Pasha became the Egyptian prime minister. Mahmoud’s niece Safinaz Zulfikar (1921-1988) was to become Queen Farida in 1938. Despite this background, the artist grew up seeing the moulid that took place near his family home and other aspects of grassroots life. His depiction of the traditional licorice seller bears witness to the fact.

He attended a Jesuit school before joining Al-Saidia Secondary School in Alexandria. Said graduated from law school in Cairo in 1918, a year before the 1919 Revolution against British occupation took place. The artist’s cultural awareness remained tied up with the development of the revolutionary and nationalist movement, which partly explains his focus on the grassroots life of his hometown as well as Aswan and Mansoura, where his work as a judge took him. Although he was committed to his job in the mixed courts, he managed to live as a painter too.

Under pressure from his father, Said would go on to have a career as a judge that he never liked. By then, however, he had studied with the Italian academic painter Amelia Casonato Daforno, who taught him at home between 1913 and 1915, attending the classes of Arturo Zanieri, who was a graduate of the Arts Academy in Florence, at his studio in Al-Nabi Danyal Street in downtown Alexandria in 1916. Between 1919 and 1921, Said travelled around Europe, visiting museums and churches, eventually studying at the private Academie Julian in Paris.

Said’s work shows elements of social realism, expressionism and impressionism. His work combines the techniques of European painting with the substance of popular Egyptian culture. He is widely known as a portrait artist. His early, classic portraits included political figures and members of the Royal Family. But he is better known for his nude portraits of bronze-skinned girls of Bahari – a rebellion against his background – as well as figures of the moulid, Quran reciters in a khayamiya marquee, or a group prayer.

A tension between his aristocratic identity and his devotion to the life of ordinary people informs Said’s life and work. His studio at the family’s beautiful villa in Janaklees, Alexandria, now a museum showing 50 of his paintings, was an interface of different worlds.

In 1922 Said married Samiha Riad (1899-1982), and the couple honeymooned in Venice.

The artist’s arranged marriage, which coincided with his appointment as the deputy district prosecutor at Mansora Mixed Courts, yielded a few classic portraits of the aristocratic wife in which she appears with conservative features, with no reflection of intimate emotions compared to portraits of his daughter Nadia. One portrait of his wife wearing a big hat with a red flower on her chest is nonetheless deeply moving.

“I married Miss Samiha Riad, whose Oriental features inspired many of my portraits. She was the best help to me, and she understood what it takes to be an artist,” Mahmoud Said is quoted as saying in the catalogue of the exhibition “In the Company of Mahmoud Said”, which opened on 16 July at the Aisha Fahmy’s historical palace in Zamalek to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his death. The exhibition, which attracted many visitors, is on show until 14 October. In 1929 the state bought a painting by Said for the first time

One of Said’s masterpieces is a 1937 oil painting, La Ville, depicting different characters representing the spirit and fashion of Alexandria at the time. The painting can be seen at the Modern Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Elsewhere in the world, Said is believed to be the only Arab artist who has had a painting sold for more than a million dollars. In 1947, the 50-year old artist, the uncle of the queen, resigned right after being appointed counsellor, dedicating himself fully to art.  It was then that he began to focus on landscapes, notably in Lebanon.

Though his popularity is in decline, Said’s legacy should inform many generations to come, not just of artists but of Egyptians. He died on 8 April, the same date as he was born, closing a uniquely inspiring circle.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly