Egypt's Fine Arts Museum displays Mahmoud Mukhtar’s sculptures

CAIRO - 19 April 2020: The Fine Arts Museum, affiliated to the Fine Arts Sector, continues to call on citizens to stay at home, commenting on their official Facebook page, “Stay home; we’ll bring the museum to you.”

Among the museum's most important holdings exhibited at the “Online Museum” is the work of artist Mahmoud Mukhtar, the pioneer of Egyptian modern art.

Mahmoud Mukhtar was born on the outskirts of Al-Mahalla al-Kubra, specifically in the village of Tanbara, on May 10, 1891. His father, Ibrahim al-Issawi, was the mayor of the village. Mukhtar lived with his maternal grandmother in his uncle's house in the village of Nasha in Mansoura.

It was known that when he was a little boy, he spent most of his time next to the lake in the village, playing with the mud and creating depictions of the scenes around him in the village.

One of Mukhtar’s sculptors held in the Fine Arts Museum in Alexandria - ET
Mukhtar came to Cairo in 1902 to live in its old neighborhoods. In close proximity to him, was the School of Fine Arts in Drb al-Gamamez opened in 1908.

The school of Fine Arts in Drb al-Gamamez was like young Mukhtar's gateway to an unexpected future; he joined the first batch of the school when he was seventeen years old.

Mokhtar's talent seemed to shine for foreign professors, causing them to assign him a special painting room within the school building. His distinguished talent also pushed the school's sponsor, Prince Yusuf Kamal, to send the boy to Paris to further deepen his knowledge.

Just as Michelangelo grew up in the care of the Florentine prince Lorenzo de' Medici, Mukhtar's talent was nurtured under the patronage of Egyptian Prince Yusuf Kamal.

Mukhtar died early on March 28, 1934, leaving an ingenuine legacy of sculptures behind.