Egyptology, the formal study of Ancient Egypt, began with the invasion of Napoleon and lead to an interest in Egypt as the birthplace of civilization . Although images of the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx were on heavily circulated on items such as postage stamps, few Egyptians were involved in Egyptology . It was through the Nationalist movement that interest in the ancient past entered Egyptian discourse, particularly through public displays of monumental sculpture and art. This introduction also brought Pharaonic themes into contact with another major issue of the time, the “woman question”. The juxtaposition of Pharaonic themes and women, especially in the art of Mahmoud Mokhtar and Muhammad Nagi, accents the ways in which new Egyptian art combined feminist discourse with Pharaonic themes.
By historicizing the Pharaonic and gendered art of Mahmoud Mokhtar and Muhammad Nagi I hope to show that this new Egyptian art was a forum in which gender could be publicly negotiated. I would like to answer two important questions. First, how did this “first generation of Egyptian artists” explore portrayals of women? Was there something different in their style when they incorporated Pharaonic themes? Did they alter their styles when their art changed from more private museum or gallery settings to monumental design? Secondly, how did their art intersect with the feminist movement? Did leaders of the feminist movement such as Huda Sharaawi take any notice of these artists? How did the public react to the placement or imagery in their artwork? To answer these questions, I will look at both primary and secondary source material. Specifically I look at reproductions of three of Muhammad Nagi’s paintings Nahdet Misr (1922), Hairdressers, and Tears of Isis (1937) and photographs of Mahmoud Mokhtar’s Nahdet Misr statue (model 1920 full-scale 1928), A Peasant woman (1928), and The Nile Nymph Statue. I will look at the memoirs of Huda Shaarawi and speeches by other feminist leaders in order to connect these works with feminist discourse of the time. I will use secondary source material such as Donald Reid’s Whose Pharaohs? and Beth Baron’s “Nationalist Iconography” to contextualize my arguments.
Although artists like Nagi and Mohktar are hailed as part of the first generation of Egyptian artists , the theme of Pharaonism in public art did not begin with their works. The modern history of women and Pharaonic themes began with the building of the Egyptian Museum, which opened in 1902, when Europeans transferred European Neopharaonism onto the façade of the museum. Following the interpretation of Donald Reid, the depictions of these women are clearly in opposition to Egyptian stylistic approaches . Not only are they depictions of the human form, a style of art abjured by the Islamic faith, but large amounts of skin and the female body are both clearly visible . Such imagery by Egyptians in advertisements or cartoons does not become popular until after the First World War . While there may be other public portrayals of the female form that occur between the façade of the Egyptian Museum and the statue of Mustafa Kamil, 1914 created 1921 erected, the statue commemorating Kamil presents an interesting stepping-stone between European Art and Egyptian symbolism. The piece was created by a French artist to commemorate Kamil but since his party fell out of favor by the time it was built it ended up being displayed only at the school he funded.
The relationship between the rising sphinx and Kamil is meant to show how the Nationalist movement of the early 20th century connected to the ancient Egyptian civilization. However, this symbolism is physically distinct from the actual subject of Egyptian women below who can also be seen as the Egyptian Nation. This distinction suggests that the ancient knowledge of civilization belongs to the male politicians of the Nationalist movement and not necessarily with the public, and most definitely not with the female public. While the nationalist movement evoked the symbols of ancient Egypt, it rarely, if ever, actually utilized the burgeoning knowledge of that era.
Donald Reid and Elliott Colla both explore the problem of Egyptology and modern Egyptians. Although Egyptians often interacted with their ancient history on a daily basis, seeing Pyramids or archaeological remnants, there was little local interest in the topic until the arrival of Napoleon. Some scholars believe this relates to the image in most Egyptian’s minds of “Pharaoh” because for many Muslims, their only knowledge of the Pharaonic past came from knowledge of the Qu’ran. Others suggest that this was mostly likely due to the fact that Muslim scholars did not have access to Greek or Roman accounts of Ancient Egypt . With the arrival of Napoleon’s army interest in the Ancient Egyptian Civilization increased. However, even though Europeans controlled Egyptology they still based most of their “new” histories entirely on the Greco-Roman accounts . Although Europeans flocked to Egypt in order to “study” an ancient civilization, the use of material culture in exploring many aspects of that civilization were severely limited . French and British Egyptologists in the late 19th century were concerned with obtaining the best “antiquities” for local Museums and although there were many attempts to stop this by the Egyptian Government, determined individuals still removed important pieces . This practice slowed with the opening of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo but its opening did not change who controlled these antiquities. As in other areas in the Egyptian government, the practice of employing Europeans to aid in creating infrastructure for Egypt continued in the management of Egyptological and Museum projects and these Europeans remained in important museum positions until after the First World War .
The opening of such a museum allowed any Egyptian to go and see the works but Egyptology as a discipline was still reserved for Europeans . Although Egyptians like Ahmed Kamal attempted to become Egyptologists, Kamal started a short lived school for Egyptians on the topic, there was rarely any support for such ventures . However, Kamal did convince nationalists such as Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid of the importance of the study and connected the modern struggle for independence with this ancient civilization. Perhaps unsurprisingly, European and Nationalist interest in the topic left women out of the discipline. Few European women were Egyptologists and no female Egyptians are mentioned as important during this time to the discipline. Even though some feminists, like Huda Sharaawi, mention an interest in antiquities possibly beyond basic curiosity, most images that depict Egyptian women interacting with the ancient world show women observing rather than studying the works . This therefore gendered the study of Egyptology as male, and preferably European male.
Mahmoud Mokhtar’s 1928 Nahdet Misr, to a certain degree challenges that suggestion, since he echoes the images of the statue of Kamil but changes the person connected to the sphinx to a woman. Mokhtar’s statue suggests instead that the knowledge of Ancient Egypt belongs to all Egyptian people, including women. This transition is an important one and Muhammad Nagi’s work portrays similar twists of older gendered themes. However, to see Mokhtar’s statue and the work of painter Muhammad Nagi as simple alterations in an enduring theme of Pharaonism, Gender, and Nationalism would be to ignore the history of the period, these artists, and their works. The choice to focus on these two artists presents a unique opportunity to study artists who, although working in essentially the same context, produced different types of work. Mohktar’s choice to work more with “realistic” female imagery and Nagi’s focus on mythical females exposes the different educational backgrounds of these artists. While education and personal interest may have separated their styles, their choice to challenge the mainstream ideas about gender through their art suggests a greater personal interest in the topic.
Muhammad Naghi was not initially a painter and had been sent to Europe in order to study law at Lyon but ended up in Florence studying painting. Naghi eventually returned to Egypt and taught at Prince Yusuf Kamil’s newly opened School of Fine Arts in Cairo. Like the European professors at the Fine Arts School Nagi’s own artistic education had come from European traditions rather than local Egyptian ones. Mohktar on the other hand, was one of the first graduates of this new school, which by 1928 had faculty composed entirely of Egyptian artists . Mahmoud Mokhtar came from a middle class family and is said to have shown a taste for sculpture from an early age . Some say that he would sculpt small images of mud from the banks of the Nile, an act that connects the sculptor himself to the ancient world. After his studies at the Fine Arts school he won a scholarship to study in France and it was there, inspired by the women’s marches in 1919, that he sculpted Nahdet Misr . Some say that although Mohktar created his model in France he imagined the piece as a colossal reproduction in Egypt. This happened, and in its final state Nahdet Misr incorporated in its image and its production the monumental works of the ancient Pharaohs since the pink granite was floated down the Nile from Aswan.
As a few scholars have noted the use of a peasant woman underlies the symbolic nature of the nationalist alliance with the feminist movement. Following on some statistics given by Rida a very select amount of women veiled in Egypt at all . This practice was also limited to middle and upper class Egyptian women who were a minority. The image then of peasant woman unveiling is strange because most peasant women at the time did not veil at all. While the statue does not directly suggest that upper class women should unveil, the imagery of the statue follows some of the arguments made by feminists of the time against the practice of veiling. The image of an unveiled peasant, reminiscent of the woman in the lower half of the Mustafa Kamil statue, was one reason that many feminists suggested that seclusion and veiling were cultural constructs rather than Islamic ones . If not all women veiled, how could veiling be an essential part of Egyptian identity?
This connection is probably not the only reason Mohktar chose an Egyptian peasant as his subject. A sample of his work, as presented in Hamed Said’s Contemporary Art in Egypt shows other images of modern Egyptian peasant women doing daily tasks . These women are generally clad in modesty garments, with uncovered faces, but cling in all the places needed to identify the subject as female. In contrast, Mohktar’s other pieces that display an Ancient theme appear as nudes or as busts. These women are identifiable to ancient times by their jewelry and a headdress with snake like those seen on images of Pharaoh. This portrayal of Ancient Egyptian women as nude is actually common in works from ancient times . In a study of Ancient Egyptian portrayals of women in 1998, Meskell suggests that women more often than men are painted as nude because of the connection between women and the erotic . However, Meskell also points out that the bulk of these women are either musicians or dancers who, in Mokhtar’s Egypt, would also have been associated with overtly sexual behavior .
The use of Pharaonic themes is also seen in the works of Muhammad Nagi, particularly Nahdet Misr. The painting shares the monumental scale of Mokhtar’s sculpture but it does not hang in an explicitly public space. The panting hangs in the National assembly, since 1922, and depicts a procession of peasants following the Goddess Isis in a chariot . While the goddess Isis is the center of the painting, those in the crowd could be from any historical period. For example, there are women in the painting who are nearly nude as well as fully veiled. Although the adult human images are all roughly the same size, the contrast in color and the positioning of Isis above the rest of the crowd draws the audiences’ eyes towards her. While examining her image alone, it is interesting to see the contrast in styles between her and the rest of the people in the picture. She is portrayed in white and appears more two dimensional than the people in the picture. Also the taper of Isis’s robe it suggests that her feet are close together. Both the dimensions and the pose of Isis evoke the feeling of Ancient Egyptian paintings. This contrast in style shows a deeper connection to Pharoanic imagery than is present in the Nahdet Misr statue. Instead of presenting a symbol of the ancient Egyptian past, the painting integrates it into an image. One can also see the use of that ancient style, and in combination with its resting place, as a critique of the use of Pharaonic imagery by the Nationalist cause. Although the idea of Egyptian identity extending back to ancient times existed, the understanding of what that actually meant was limited. Nationalist connection with those cultures and traditions was merely two-dimensional because they used symbols of the past without understanding the people or culture of that period. Ancient Egypt exists merely as a myth rather than as a history that had the capability to guide and educate the Nationalist movement.
With this interpretation in mind, one could also explore the gendering of the painting. Nagi uses Isis as the center of many of his paintings, most notably, in Tears of Isis, which is a depiction of the resurrection story of Osiris . The choice to use Isis, as opposed to other Egyptian gods or goddesses, may be meaningful because stories of Isis often portray her not only as a goddess but also as a human woman . She is also important since she is the wife of Osiris, a god whose brother, Seth, wrongfully kills him . This portrayal may be why Nagi chose her to be the centerpiece for a painting at the National assembly, the seat of the Egyptian government lead by Sa’d Zaghlul’s Wafd party. The “good wife” that Isis is often portrayed would have followed the Wafdist idea of gender for Egyptian women. Although initially supportive of women rights, especially during the 1919 revolution, the government stopped it support and in its 1924 constitution did not grant Egyptian women any more political rights . Women were not even able to enter the national assembly as journalists for important news stories for quite a while longer .
Although many see Isis in this singular dimension , looking at Nagi’s portrayal of that particular myth of Isis explores Nagi’s views on gender. In Tears of Isis, once again the Goddess is clad in white with feet bound close together in the style of Ancient Egyptian paintings and appears as the centerpiece. Interestingly, although she is supposed to be a supportive wife to Osiris, she is shown as larger and physically above his sarcophagus. This painting, displayed in a gallery, also shows her visage three dimensions suggesting a more concrete personification of this goddess. However, why does Nagi, in his two most famous works, choose to depict goddesses rather than modern Egyptian women? Is it because of the popularity of Pharaonic symbolism at the time or because of a personal interest in antiquity? I suggest that Nagi’s use of Pharaonic themes, although probably inspired by a European Renaissance-esque use of the Egyptian equivalent of “classical” inspiration because of his studies in Italy, could come from a deeper personal interest in Ancient Egypt. To support this claim I analyze the painting Hairdresser, an oil on canvas painting on display, as of the printing of Said’s Contemporary Art in Egypt 1964, in the Museum of Modern Art. The painting shows two women, without head covering, combing each other’s hair. While this may seem a mundane image, similar to the sculptures of Mohktar’s peasant women, it actually shows a connection to Ancient Egyptian depictions of women.
Although there is evidence for a measure of gender equality in Ancient Egypt, it is equally possible to see inequality. In a 1998 study of gender in Ancient Egypt, archaeologist Lynn Meskell examined size and other qualities of ancient images to evaluate gender. Interestingly, one common image was one of women combing each other’s hair. Although perhaps an activity common to the modern Egypt and unrelated to the ancient portrayal, it does show the possibility of an Egyptian artist portraying the ancient past as more than symbolic of greatness or a search for a National identity. The painting portrays how Ancient Egyptian life may have endured in subtle but important ways. Many different ideas about a National Egyptian identity emerged within the early years of the Nationalist movement. Competing opinions about modernity and the role of women in an independent Egypt were often central to these debates . My analysis of two Egyptian artists who produced as well as were products of these debates suggests that their personal ideas about Egyptian identity often won out over Nationalist sentiments. Although both produced monumental works that used nationalist rhetoric about Ancient Egypt and women, both artists portrayed women in more honest roles than did Nationalists. Their placement of women in nationalist work both Nahdet Misrs show women as central to the discussion but limited by the nationalist voice. The unveiling peasant woman, although a symbol for the Egyptian nation, does not reflect the women who campaigned for women’s rights in the Egyptian nation in 1919.
In a public setting, it was more acceptable for Mohktar to portray a peasant woman, in some circles the more “authentic” Egyptian, as unveiling than her secluded and heavily veiled upper class sisters. Nagi’s Nahdet Misr too analyzes nationalist rhetoric surrounding women through his use of Ancient Egypt. Although Nationalists made no attempt to aid the cause of Egyptian feminists it is the Goddess Isis who stands in the National Assembly. The peasant women in that painting also show the gender contradictions present for Egyptian women who could be seen as lewd or peasants in translucent robes or heavily veiled and associated with morality. However, both women participated in the procession, a public and possibly political affair, regardless of their dress. These conclusions are also supported by the other work of these artists. In works in smaller galleries, these artists continued to engage with Pharaonic themes but do so in a way that is more similar to Ancient Egyptian understandings than interpretations of Ancient Egypt through Nationalist rhetoric. These smaller settings allowed them to be more explicit about their opinions and show how contextual the “woman question” was.
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