Mohamed Nagy (), also spelled Mohamed Nagi and in
Standard Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also refe ...
as Muhammad Naji
(17 January 1888 – 1956)
was an Egyptian artist. He is considered to be among the founders of modern Egyptian art,
and was responsible for establishing the modern painting school of Egypt.
[ He was the recipient of the golden prize of the Salon du Paris for his "Egypt Renaissance". His other works, which have been well received, are the murals of " Ancient Egyptian medicine, Medieval medicine, Folk medicine, and Inauguration of Mohamed Ali".][
After Nagy's death, ]Tharwat Okasha
Tharwat Okasha (Also spelt Sarwat Okasha, ar, ثروت عكاشة; 1921–27 February 2012) was an Egyptian writer, translator and influential minister of culture during the Nasserite era, and is known as the "founder of Egypt's cultural institut ...
, the Minister of Culture of Egypt, opened the Mohamed Nagy Museum
Mohamed Nagy Museum is a photography and biographical art history museum located at 9 Mahmoud El Gendi Street, close to the Giza Plateau, in the Haram district of Giza, in the southwest of the Greater Cairo metropolis, Egypt. It was initially Mo ...
on 13 July 1968.[
]
Early life
Mohammed Nagi was born to an Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian father and Turkish mother, Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
city of Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
on 17 January 1888. He displayed a keen interest in the art forms of poetry, folk arts and painting from a young age, and also in music (playing violin and lute). From 1906 to 1910, he studied law at Lyons
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
. From 1910 to 1914 he enrolled in art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence
The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze ("academy of fine arts of Florence") is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy.
It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, the first student to do so from Egypt. Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
(1840-1926) was his teacher in the art of European Impressionism.[ The painter's sister is Effat Nagy, also a well known painter in Egypt.][
]
Professional life and legacy
Nagy returned to Alexandria during the World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, when he was fired by a "radical approach towards classic rules of art" and concentrated his painting on Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
. His paintings were a mix of Egypt's traditional and the modern art forms. Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
was his theme, and art work on walls and permanent surfaces done by artists of Ancient Egypt enthused him.[ In 1962, the Ministry of Culture bought his atelier and then ]Tharwat Okasha
Tharwat Okasha (Also spelt Sarwat Okasha, ar, ثروت عكاشة; 1921–27 February 2012) was an Egyptian writer, translator and influential minister of culture during the Nasserite era, and is known as the "founder of Egypt's cultural institut ...
formally inaugurated the Mohamed Nagy Museum
Mohamed Nagy Museum is a photography and biographical art history museum located at 9 Mahmoud El Gendi Street, close to the Giza Plateau, in the Haram district of Giza, in the southwest of the Greater Cairo metropolis, Egypt. It was initially Mo ...
on 13 July 1968. The museum has 1,200 paintings and sketches,[ including 40 of Nagy's oil paintings his sister donated to the museum.
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagy, Mohamed
1888 births
1956 deaths
Mohamed Nagy
Mohamed Nagy Ismail Afash (Arabic script: ); born 30 October 1984), known by his nickname Gedo (, , which means ''Grandpa'' in Egyptian Arabic), is an Egyptian footballer who plays for National Bank of Egypt in the Egyptian Premier League, as ...
Egyptian male artists
People from Alexandria
Egyptian painters