ABSTRACT LANDSCAPE
oil on gold paper
48.5 x 59.5cm; 19 1/8 x 23 3/8in
65.5 x 74.6cm; 25 6/8 x 29 3/8in (framed)

Property from a Private Collection, London

Provenance
Dr Mohammed Said Farsi
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2013

In the tapestry of 20th century Egyptian history, the life of Queen Farida, born Safinaz Zulficar, unfolds as a poignant transformation from a captive icon of royalty to a liberated voice of the avant-garde. While her marriage to King Farouk in 1938 cast her as the "Emerald of the East" in the public eye, it was her divorce and subsequent exile that allowed her to polish a far more enduring facet of her soul: her identity as a painter.

Her artistic journey was never a mere hobby of the leisure class; it was a psychological sanctuary. Under the early tutelage of her uncle, the legendary Egyptian master Mahmoud Sa'id, Farida developed a sensibility that married the grandeur of her upbringing with a raw, introspective humanity. When the 1952 Revolution finally dismantled the monarchy, she traded the stifling etiquette of the Abdeen Palace for the bohemian studios of Paris and Beirut. It was here, stripped of her crown but draped in the vibrant colours of her heritage, that Farida truly found her kingdom.

Her prose on canvas was written in light and shadow. Her work leaned heavily into a lyrical Impressionism, characterised by a profound sense of longing. She often painted the Egyptian landscape from memory, her brushstrokes capturing the hazy, golden humidity of the Nile and the rhythmic geometry of Sufi dervishes in mid-whirl. These subjects were not just cultural motifs; they were manifestations of her own search for spiritual equilibrium and a way to bridge the distance between her European exile and the soil that remained her greatest muse.

In her later years, Farida’s return to Cairo signaled a quiet triumph. She was no longer viewed through the lens of political tragedy, but as a respected peer among Egypt's artistic elite. Her legacy remains a testament to the idea that title and status are temporary, but the creative spirit, once unburdened, is sovereign. She died in 1988, leaving behind a body of work that serves as a vivid, colorful bridge between the vanishing world of the pashas and the enduring heartbeat of modern Egyptian art.

Queen Farida's works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, most recently at Liwan Gallery in Cairo in 2025 with her granddaughter Yasmine Perreten. The artist has entered the collections of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha, Qatar), Queen Farida Museum / Al-Shumu'a Gallery (Maadi, Cairo), Alexandria Museum of Fine Arts (Alexandria, Egypt), National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (Cairo, Egypt), Royal Jewelry Museum (Alexandria, Egypt), the private collection of Janet Gaynor and Paul Gregory (United States) and various private collections (Paris, Zurich, and Beirut).