In Conversation With : Valérie Didier-Hess Part 2

Author Daf Beirut

A series of in depth interviews with Arthur Debsi, writer and researcher at Dalloul Art Foundation where he discusses various subjects with professionals in the Arab world.

Valérie Didier-Hess – Co-author of the Catalogue Raisonné of Mahmoud Saïd

Part 2. In 1951, Mahmoud Saïd (1897-1964) qualified in an interview the creation of a work as the ‘emotional shock that a mother experiences when she feels her baby move in her womb for the first time’. In the second part of the conversation, Valérie Didier-Hess talks about her second essay entitled ‘From Model to Modello. Mahmoud Saïd: A Modern Egyptian Master in the Making’, where she describes the artistic process of the painter. Mainly inspired by human figures, Mahmoud Saïd (1897-1964) would follow several steps of preparation, comparable to the ones of European artists such as Flemmish painter Peter-Paul Rubens (1577-1640) in the 17th century. Didier-Hess took the example La Ville, executed in 1937, to illustrate how Saïd used to complete his artworks. First, the artist produces a bozzetto – a preliminary sketch on paper done with charcoal, or colored-crayon, in order to organize the space, and the elements of the composition. Then, he developed this sketch into a modello, on a small panel with oil, in which he integrates more details, while distributing the colors, and the actions, for the final composition.

Video recorded on Zoom by Arthur Debsi
Edited by Christine Labban