Fahr El-Nissa Zeid (Turkey, 1900-1991)The Red City oil on canvassigned (lower right) and initialled on the verso, accompanied by copies of two handwritten notes from the artist dated 1957, executed circa 1957162 x 132cm (63 3/4 x 51 15/16in).注脚TWO MAJOR ABSTRACT PAINTINGS BY FAHRLENISSA ZEID FROM THE DISTINGUISHED COLLECTIONS OF BARON JACQUES MAURICE DESPEAUX AND HIS EXCELLENCY DINO SCIOLLI Provenance:Property from the family collection of Baron Jacques Maurice Despeaux (1896-1967)Acquired directly from the artist by the above in 1957Note:The present work is accompanied by copies of two letters in the hand of the artist dated 1957 and 1958, stating that three paintings (including the present lot) were destined to be exhibited at the artists landmark show at the Lord's Gallery in London but that the artist withdrew them from the exhibition in order to give them to Baron Jacques Maurice Despeaux"My Dear Mr DespeauxI have of course held back three canvases for you which were due to be exhibited at the Lords gallery, I have instead sent them two mosaics! I will be sure to send these to you in the coming week. Fahrelnissa Zeid El-Hussein, January 1958"The present work is a highly significant abstract painting by Fahr El-Nissa Zeid originally destined for the artists landmark exhibition at London's Lords Gallery in 1958, her paintings from this period is widely considered to be her most mature body of work. An artist with one of the most diverse repertoires in the Middle East, Fahrelnissa oscillated between abstraction, expressionism, portrait art and landscape painting. Her monumental abstracts are considered the purest synthesis of her work; an amalgam of Islamic geometric influences and European abstract modes of representation colour and shape Zeid's abstract works. The French writer and art critic, Charles Estienne, with whom Fahrelnissa collaborated several works, wrote: "Her paintings portray the parade of strange nations that migrate from one place to another; they expose -- in strange lights turning to crimson-reds, blues of huge glass cases, heavy as lead coils, enveloped in violent blacks. This light resembles the fabulous lights of Gothic stained glasses. Let this thick and impenetrable wall of Eastern stained glass, which grasps one in an unknown and transparent way, be a boundless and free line conveying the latest messages of Islamic arts to French art..." Profusely creative and astoundingly versatile Fahr El Nissa Zeid was an artist par excellence. One of the first women to attend the Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul, Fahr El-Nissa went on train at the Academi Ranson in Paris under Roger Bissiere. After marrying into the Hashemite Royal family of Jordan Fahr El-Nissa participated in a spate of international solo exhibitions in London, Paris, and New York and the Middle East before settling in Amman in 1976, after the death of her husband Prince Zeid.