01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Raghed Ayab's The Monastery, with Footnotes, #51

Raghed Ayab, (EGYPT, 1892-1982)

The Monastery, c. 1965

Oil on panel

55 x 84cm (21 5/8 x 33 1/16in).

Private collection

Ragheb Ayad was born in 1892 into a Coptic family in Cairo. Ayad was one of the first students to enrol in the School of Fine Arts in Cairo. After graduating in 1911, Ayad worked as a drawing teacher at the Coptic Secondary School in Cairo and made several trips to France and Italy during those years. In 1925 he both received a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Rome. After obtaining his diploma in 1928 Ayad returned Egypt the following year.

Ayad was the first to propose the idea of creating an Egyptian Academy in Rome on the model of the other foreign academies established in the Italian capital. In 1930, he was appointed the head of the decoration department at the School of Applied Arts in Giza where he remained until 1937. Following this appointment he became professor and director the free section of the school of Fine Arts in Cairo. He also worked as a curator and played an integral role in reorganizing the Coptic museum in 1941. In 1950 he was named director of the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art .

Ayad was also known for painting religious scenes and exterior views of the Coptic monasteries. Coptic monasticism saw a revival that started in the 1960s during the papacy of Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria. More on Ragheb Ayad

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