01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Mahmoud Said's Eid al-Adha, with Footnotes #25

Mahmoud Said, 1897-1964, Egyptian

Eid al-Adha, c. 1917

Oil on board

14 by 24cm.; 5½ by 9½in.

Private collection

Eid al-Adha, Muslim festival, marks the culmination of the hajj (pilgrimage) rites at Minā, Saudi Arabia. Eid al-Adha is distinguished by the performance of communal prayer at daybreak on its first day. It begins on the 10th of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar, and continues for an additional three days. During the festival, families that can afford to sacrifice a ritually acceptable animal (sheep, goat, camel, or cow) do so and then divide the flesh equally among themselves, the poor, and friends and neighbours. Eid al-Adha is also a time for visiting with friends and family and for exchanging gifts. This festival commemorates the ransom with a ram of the biblical patriarch Ibrāhīm’s (Abraham’s) son Ismāʿīl (Ishmael)—rather than Isaac, as in Judeo-Christian tradition. More on Eid al-Adha

Mahmoud Said, 1897-1964, EGYPTIAN. Born into a wealthy Alexandrian family, Mahmoud Said first studied jurisprudence at the French School of Law in Cairo in the 1910s. During his studies, he became interested in painting, and joined the studios of Italian painters Amelia Casonato da Forno and Arturo Zanieri, before travelling to France to study in Paris, briefly at the Académie Julian. Though he worked for almost thirty years as a lawyer and then a judge, he continued to paint in his free time until he quit law in the late 1940s and devoted himself to art completely. He is considered the foremost painter of the ‘Pioneer’ generation of Egyptian artists, renowned for his bold, richly coloured portraits, nudes, and landscapes. He painted continuously until his death in 1964.

 Said’s works are housed in private and public collections including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Museum of Modern Egyptian Art, Cairo; Mahmoud Said Museum, Alexandria, and Ministry of Culture, Egypt. More on Mahmoud Said

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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