AN ETHIOPIAN CELEBRATION
signed in English Naghi lower right
oil on paper
image: 23 x 29cm; 9 x 11 1/2in
framed: 53 x 59.5cm; 20 3/4 x 23 1/4in

Provenance:
Collection of Dr Mohammed Said Farsi
Thence by descent

Born to an Egyptian father and Turkish mother in Alexandria, Nagy displayed a keen interest in poetry, folk art, music and painting from a young age. From 1906 to 1910 he studied law in Lyons and from 1910 to 1914 he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence - the first Egyptian student to do so - where he was taught by Claude Monet. Nagy returned to Egypt during the First World War, establishing the modern Egyptian school of painting focusing on Impressionism. In 1939 Nagy started his ambitious Alexandria School project and headed the Museum of Modern Art as its director. In 1952 he purchased a plot of land in Giza and pursued the project there. After he died the Ministry of Culture bought his studio and opened the Mohamed Nagy Museum there on 13 July 1968.