The big news in Egypt's legal community in 1947 was the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal Mahmoud Saeed submitting his retirement. The reasons for his early retirement, at the age of 50, were even more surprising. Saeed told his colleagues and the then Minister of Justice that his early interest in painting had developed into an abiding passion and he did not want to wait any longer to fulfil his lifelong dream. Quitting the judiciary, Saeed became a member of the art community the following morning. In their memoirs, Mahmoud Saeed's contemporaries remembered that his dramatic decision was the conclusion of a decades-long struggle, which first broke out when his family ignored his painting talent and compelled him to enter law school. Moreover, a new biography of the firmer chief justice turned influential painter has disclosed that he found his life-long dream irresistible even after he graduated from the law school in 1921, and was appointed in the office of the Public Prosecutor. “Nor did Saeed's passion for painting wane after he was promoted to the position of chief justice in the Court of Appeal in 1939,” Nesma Attalla, the author of the biography “Mahmoud Saeed the Pioneer of Contemporary Egyptian Art”, states. Navigating interesting areas in the history of Mahmoud Saeed and his influence on the art movement in the country and beyond, the biographer discovered that Saeed became a celebrity in Egypt's fine arts community within such a short time that his paintings attracted attention far beyond the country. (A few months ago, a painting by Mahmoud Saeed was auctioned by Sotheby's in Dubai for more than a record-breaking LE2.5 million – some US$ 450,000.) The author also believes that Saeed sought through painting to break the fetters of his legal professions and freely express his emotional concerns and intellectual message. Saeed distinguished himself by his individual technique of balance, symmetry, illusive depth and geometric perspective. He also showed his thorough knowledge of anatomy of the human body and his skill in revealing its areas of beauty. Art critics jointly hailed Saeed for his brilliant use of colour, light and shade to accentuate the mass in the surface. Signs of the influence of the ancient Egyptian artisan are easily visible in Saeed's forms; the human figures and the sallow brown of their complexion. He merited local and international credit for his rhythmic distribution of his elements, whether human or architectural constructions. Although he has so many achievements to his credit, some of his acknowledged masterpieces depict Alexandria's charming girls, coquettish bathing women, mosques and the ancient fortress in this Mediterranean city as well as and its natural landscapes. He also depicted farmers and the fishing community in his birthplace. Saeed also drew his inspiration from the women balancing water-jars on their heads during their daily journey to the river, women wearing meliya (a loose black robe pulled tight around the women's body to reveal their curves) and beautiful ladies wearing bright gold bracelets. Faithful to his new métier, Saeed used to import his oil paints from European countries. However, he stunned their makers when he managed to create a brilliant mix of new colours. The pioneering painter had the opportunity to upgrade his skills in drawing when he entered an atelier run by two foreign masters in Alexandria. Also, during his visits overseas, in France in particular, he was keen to tour art museums and spend times with artist celebrities in Paris at that time. His burning passion for drawing prompted him to join the Julian Academy of Classic Art in Paris. Despite his admiration of the Western schools of art, the influence of his native heritage and environment permeates Saeed's paintings. The Western influence is traced in his ‘Clothes Line' painted in 1923, the biopic painting ‘Hager' also from 1923 and the biopic ‘Naeema' in 1927. In 1934 Saeed's artistic career witnessed a new phase, in which spiritual and religious symbols overwhelmed the surface. Paintings accomplished at this stage have also been described as conveying an intellectually intriguing debate about death, feminism and religious devotion. However, he also used hot colours to underline the charm and the beauty of his mermaid-like female representations during this period. Saeed shifted his interest to portraiture in the 1940s. Unlike those of his contemporaries, his portraits revealed his sitter's emotions and secrets deeply rooted seated in the person's sub-conscience, exemplified in his self-portraits and portraits of family members. Further, the dim and subdued colour prevailing in his father's portrait suggests that the son-father relationship was disturbed. The author of the new biography of Saeed's provides an innovative reading of paintings portraying his family members. She indicates that these portraits chronicled Saeed's shifting career from impressionistic style to expressive constructivism. Mahmoud Saeed is represented in the art collections of dozens of art museums and institutions at home. These include Alexandria's art museums, numerous museums in Cairo and the art museum in the Suez Canal Port Said, and the presidential palaces in Egypt. He is also represented in private art collections in Egypt and abroad. The author has effectively traced the pioneering painter's talent and influence. However, a presentation of the landscape of art in Egypt in general and Alexandria in particular, which occupied the book's first 20 pages should have appeared later – otherwise, the reader could prematurely mistake the biography for a survey of art movement in Egypt in the early 20th century.
