Mahmoud Said (Egypt, 1897-1964)Le Chômeur (The Vagabond) oil on canvas, framedsigned 'M.SAID' and dated '1946' (lower left), further signed, dated and titled 'Le Chômeur' in Arabic and English on the verso, executed in 194680 x 70cm (31 1/2 x 27 9/16in).Footnotes:'LE CHOMEUR' A MASTERPIECE BY MAHMOUD SAID FORMERLY EXHIBITED AT THE LOUVRE FROM THE COLLECTION OF RENOWNED ACTRESS LEILA SHEIRProvenance:Property from the collection of the renowned actress Leila Sheir, Cairo,The artists collection until 1964, thence by descent to Nadia Mahmoud Said, the artists daughteracquired from the above by Raouf Abou Esbe circa 1977 and gifted to his wife, the present ownerExhibited: Paris, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Louvre, Egypt Exhibit, 1949, No 757Alexandria, Solo exhibition at the Amitiés Françaises, 1950Guezireh Palace, Cairo, Retrospective Exhibition: Mahmoud Said, 1951, No.100 Alexandria, Museum of Fine Arts, Mahmoud Said, 1960, No.53Alexandria, Museum of Fine Arts, 1964, Mahmoud Said, No.131Literature: Boctor, Gabriel. Artistes contemporains d'Egypte: Mahmoud Saïd. Cairo: Editions Aladin, 1 October 1952, (illustrated);Guézireh, Société des Amis de l'Art sous le Patronage de S.M. Le Roi, Catalogue de la rétrospective des oeuvres de Mahmoud Saïd. 1921-1951Makarius, La Revue Du Caire, 1951, No.142Rassem, 1952, plate 23 Al-Sharouni, 1965, p.76 (illustrated)Mustafa, 1966 (illustrated)Abu Ghazi, 1972 (illustrated)Dawastashy, Esmat. Mahmoud Saïd: Memorial Book on the Pioneer ofContemporary Egyptian Painting – On the 100th Anniversary of his Birth, Cairo: Ministry of Culture - The Cultural Development Fund. 1997, no. 43 (illustrated No.172)Abdul Salam, 2009, p.151Al-Shafei, Rawya Ossama. Artist Mahmoud Saïd: An Artistic and Analytical Study. MA Thesis. Faculty of Fine Arts of Alexandria, 2012, illustrated fig 157Valerie Didier Hess and Hussam Rashwan, Mahmoud Said: Catalogue Raisonne Volume 1, Paintings, Skira Editore, 2016, illustrated on page 252Note: The present work is included in the Artists Catalogue Raisonne; Valerie Didier Hess and Hussam Rashwan, Mahmoud Said: Catalogue Raisonne Volume 1, Paintings, Skira Editore, 2016, illustrated on page 252'In Said's works where people are present, we see them expressing their pleasures and dreams' we witness feminine intrigues, the murmurs of street peddlers, the frenzies of the 'Zar'. In this fabulous Egypt, where the women are golden, the sea is indigo and the palm trees are as loaded as the fishermen's nets – miraculously, a witness seems to have come from another world: he is the Chomeur Lightning bolts that sting the sky of Alexandria's Corniche point to the distress of his grey jacket, of his abandoned hands, recalling that he is an Egypt that no magic brush can transfigure. In an atmosphere of enchantment, one sunbeam almost transforms his ragged clothing into a brocade, transforms a puddle into a lake of bliss, transforms a horizon of hovels and mud into a city of Venetian prestige. The beam fades before an ageing face, marked by discouragement. There is poetry in his rags, whose holes withstand the cold wind, and he who wears them refuses to bow to humiliation Witness the Chomeur of Mahmoud Said: is this not, within this retrospective, which is one of the paramount display in Egyptian art history, an example of Egyptian arts ability not only to transform the aspect of things, but also the gaze which falls upon them? ' Laura Makarius 'Witness the Chomeur of Mahmoud Said: is this not, within this retrospective, which is one of the paramount display in Egyptian art history, an example of Egyptian arts ability not only to transform the aspect of things, but also the gaze which falls upon them? ' Laura MakariusBonhams have the rare privilege of presenting one of the most iconic and moving works by the doyen of Egyptian art, Mahmoud Said, ever to come to the market. Poignant, enigmatic and graceful, Le Chomeur or the Vagabond, is the archetypal synthesis of Said's inimitable portraits of noble Egyptian peasants and is specifically identified by leading art critics of the time as a seminal masterpiece within his oeuvre.Said's empathetic and stylized representations of Egyptian daily life, pronounced so touchingly in the present work, would later be regarded as the supreme expression of Egyptian artistic heritage in the twentieth century.Tender and ennobling in its portrayal of the dignified Egyptian peasant, the present work is evidence of an artist, who belying his aristocratic heritage and classical artistic training, captured the true spirit of the age in his penetrative renderings of the Egyptians and their everyday plight.The present work comes to market with a distinguished provenance; originally in the collection of the artists daughter, it was subsequently acquired by the renowned Egyptian Actress and fashion icon Leila Sheir, who was crowned Miss Egypt in 1964. Published in over a dozen books and journals, and exhibited numerous times during the artists life, Le Chomeur's immense significance is underscored by its inclusion in a major exhibition at the Louvre in Paris in 1949 which commemorated Franco-Egyptian culture Never before presented at auction, Le Chomeur is an extremely rare example of a major portrait coming to market. With the majority of Said's work held by institutions or in permanent collections, the current sale presents collectors with one of the few remaining opportunities to acquire a pivotal work by the artist. THE WORKThe composition is permeated by a sense of mystery which is most palpable in the sitter's inscrutable and solemn downward gaze. Reflective, demure, and exuding a sense of dignified simplicity - the sitter can be interpreted equally as a weary, sombre figure as he can a source of wisdom.In imbuing his Vagabond with a sense of humble wisdom, Said follows in a distinct European tradition in portraiture, in particular the works of Diego Velázquez, Goya and Eduoard Manet, whose paintings of world-weary 'beggar-philosophers' fit into the common intellectual notion of the social outcast as a seer possessing rare insight.A dark, almost surreal air envelops the backdrop; gloomy and desolate, the landscape is a visual metaphor for the Chomeur's hardship; yet, in stark contrast to his sullen mood, figures in the background continue their daily work; fishermen by the harbour and sailing boats in the sea remind us that our figure is an outcast from the daily activity of working life. The movement towards a vernacular, humanized art-form marked not only an artistic shift for Said, but a shift from his own aristocratic milieu. What we see in Le Chomeur is the apotheosis of Said's artistic agenda: which was his ache for capturing the ineffable nobility of the common Egyptian.Characterised by an atmosphere of nostalgia and longing, in Said's depiction we get a purified symbol of the beauty and dignity of Egypt and its people. Well documented, widely exhibited, and with a provenance that testifies to its brilliance, Le Chomeur survives as one of the most elegant and iconic examples of Mahmoud Said's work.THE WISE VAGABONDPoor beggars and vagabonds have often been depicted to underscore the virtues of simplicity and the pure heartedness of those which have no material ties in the world, heavily influenced by the popularity of Stoic philosophy throughout Western thinking. Beggars proved to be a highly rewarding subject for painters, draughtsmen and sculptors. The artists could portray various emotions and generate pathos by introducing dramatic gestures and solemn facial expressions, and lavish attention on rendering a variety of texture... This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
