Mahmoud Mokthar, The Three Beggars, bronze, circa 1928-1929
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000
The Three Beggars is a prominent example of Egypt’s most significant modern sculptor, Mahmoud Mokthar. The sculpture depicts three Egyptian men wearing long galabia cloaks and tight turbans – a style of dress still prevalent in Egypt today. The monumental references to ancient Egypt are not present in this image of distinctly un-monumental men. Unlike the exceedingly smooth surfaces of Mokhtar’s small marble sculptures of peasant women, the bronze here is choppy and gestural, evoking the work of Auguste Rodin. The composition of three bronze men, each of whom appears vulnerable in a different way, echoes Rodin’s Three Shades, of which Mokhtar likely would have known. Instead of blindly copying the French master, he re-works and re-purposes the composition to express his own identity through the recognizable Egyptian clothing of the figures.
