A painting tells stories through soft brushstrokes, a painter dreams in watercolors, and a masterpiece is made to captivate. This is the story of Egypt’s artistic siblings, Effat and Mohamed Naghi; a duo who loved art and their country simultaneously, and devoted themselves to creating masterpieces that defined modern Egyptian art. The Alexandrian siblings hailed from aristocratic circles: Mohamed, born in 1888, was 17 years Effat’s senior. Although their artistic careers started at different points in their lives, both siblings had a fervor to create from a young age. Mohamed studied music and painting at an early age, but didn’t pursue his love for the arts until he became the first Egyptian to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence from 1910 until 1914. The nature of Mohamed’s career and studies led him to travel the world, which highly influenced his work later in life. Studying European art-making up-close, he was also fortunate enough to have learnt and studied with the world-renowned painter Claude Monet. By the late 1920s, Mohamed was a painter, lawyer, and a diplomat, and teenage Effat recognized her love for painting. She would often…
