On the Banks of the Nile

In the wake of Egypt’s anti-colonial revolution of 1919 and independence in 1922, Mahmud Mukhtar’s sculpture achieved fame as an expression of national rebirth. His marriage of modern European style perfected while an art student in Paris with the mannerisms of Egyptian statuary from the days of Pharaohs plus his choice of "timeless" Egyptian figures subject—the village headman, the peasant, the woman carrying water atop her head—drew a continuous line from Egypt’s ancient past to its present. In so during, Mukhtar assembled a symbolic repertoire for a newly independent Egypt.