The exhibition, which continues until 15 October celebrating the 60th death anniversary of the renowned artist, is a journey through the creative life of Mahmoud Said (1897-1964) along with his contemporaries, friends, and mentors.

The show includes 40 of Said’s masterpieces and 75 works by several renowned artists of the time along with Said’s mentors, most notably Italian creators Amelia Casonato Da Forno and Arturo Zanieri.

Furthermore, works by other contemporaries of Said who were either born or based in Alexandria, the artist’s home city, are on display.

These include Giuseppe Sebasti (1900-1961), Laurent Salinas (1913-2010), Aristomenis Angelopoulos (1925-1930), Aristide Papageorge (1899-1983), Enrico Brandani (1914-1979), and Carlo Suares (1892-1976), among others.

Clea Badaro (1913–1968) is the other Egyptian Alexandria-born artist with Said in the exhibition.

Badaro studied in Switzerland and carved his name by capturing Egyptian daily life, landscapes, and portraits on his canvases. 

“This qualitative display of a group of rare artistic masterpieces is more complex than a mere art exhibition. It invites the viewer into an evaluation of that period and the creative legacy of its early pioneers. Egyptian art was one of the most important fruits of the interaction between Egyptian and European cultures at that time,” Head of the Fine Arts Sector Waleed Kanoush said about the exhibition in an official press release. 

He referred to the exhibition as a rare and qualitative artistic showcase and an important historical testimony to contemporary Egyptian art.

Mahmoud Said is the son of Mohamed Said Pasha, Egypt's prime minister in the 1910s.

He was seen as the father of modern Egyptian painting who initiated the early 19th-century visual art movement in Egypt.

Said was the first artist to receive the State Award of Appreciation by the late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser in 1960.

He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, which hosted some of the most important 19th- and 20th-century European artists.

Said’s oils embodied Egyptian identity and culture through landscapes and portraits that highlighted different facets of Egyptian life at the time. 

His initial paintings showed influences of European impressionism and later evolved to show echoes of cubism and social realism fused with traditional techniques.

Numerous of Said’s works are in Egypt, and some are in private collections internationally. His paintings are often sold at the most reputable auction houses, scoring the highest prices for Arab artists. 

His Whirling Dervishes was sold for over $2.5 million at Christie's Dubai in 2010.