Mokhtar was not merely Egypt's most distinguished sculptor, he was in reality Egypt's first artist-activist, a noble mantle which the celebrated Inji Efflatoun (1926-1989) would inherit and become predominantly known for only much later on after Mokhtar's foundations were so deftly laid.
Mahmoud Mokhtar was born May 10, 1891, in the small Nile Delta village of Nasha. From a very early age his only hobby was to sit by the canal and make small mud sculptures of horses, camels and peasants. He would then put these sculptures in the oven to dry; later contemplating them which spurred him towards producing more. He later moved to Cairo, near Abdeen, where he began his schooling.
On 13 May, 1908, Prince Youssef Kamel inaugurated the School of Fine Arts in Darb El Gammamiz, where Mokhtar was one of its first students. In 1910 the school held an exhibition of the students’ work and Mokhtar's sculptures were highly praised. In 1911, he was granted a scholarship to study art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. After graduating top of his class in 1912, Mokhtar travelled on scholarship funded by Prince Youssef Kamal to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He enrolled in the studio of French sculptor, Jules-Felix Coutan, as a visiting student. There his practice became steeped in the techniques of ancient art, and he increasingly incorporated ancient Egyptian themes into his work. During his stay in France, he befriended members of the Egyptian Wafd Party and was inspired to create the prototype for his most famous statue, Nahdet Misr (Egyptian Awakening), which was initially unveiled in Ramses Square in Cairo in 1928 and now stands opposite the Cairo University Bridge. The work, which revolutionary Saad Zaghloul considered an expression of national revival, depicts a fellaha (female peasant) and a sphinx, representing the grandeur of ancient Egypt and the undying fertility of the Nile Valley. The piece immediately drew attention from a group of visiting Egyptian students, including noted politician Wissa Wassef. Nahdet Misr remains the most significant Modernist sculpture to this day, and stands as an empowering symbol of self-determination and national pride in Egypt.
Mokhtar eventually became a central protafonist in Egypt's nationalist art movement, in contrast to other notable colleagues including; Youssef Kamel, Ragheb Ayad, Ahmed Sabry, Mahmoud Said, and Mohamed Naghi. Mokhtar was an active participant in demonstrations for independence after which he instrumentalized his artistic prowess towards creating sculptures that celebrated national identity, and as timeless messages for social and political reform. Mokhtar also became a member of the Wafd Party, where he and other esteemed authors such as the preeminent Abbas Mahmoud Al Aqqad, wrote articles in protest of the elites and colonialism, as qwell as at aiming to engender an appreciation for the social and political role of art among the intelligentsia. Mokhtar was not merely Egypt's most distinguished sculptor, he was in reality Egypt's first artist-activist, a noble mantle which the celebrated Inji Efflatoun (1926-1989) would inherit and become predominantly known for only much later on after Mokhtar's foundations were so deftly laid.
In Paris his works were admired by his professor, who told him, "you will be a great artist in your country." Indeed, Mokhtar has since been recognized as the father of modern Egyptian sculpture. After three years Mokhtar returned to Egypt and began producing magnificent monumental sculptures such as Saad Zaghloul, The Emancipation of Egypt, The Resistance, Queen of Sheba and the numerous renditions of the fellaha (female peasant) who remained his only muse until the end of his life. The Mokhtar Museum in Cairo, where his sculptures were neglected for years, was finally restored and reopened to the public in October 2003. His work also features as part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization inaugurated in February 2017.