Mohammed Nagui was among the generations of pioneers – the first Generation who set the standard for a renaissance of Egyptian modern art.

In 1906 he entered the University of Lyon and after earning a law degree in 1910 went to Florence, Italy where he studied art for four years. Prior to the outbreak of world War 1 he returned to Egypt and introduced. What was become a widespread art arrival.

Revolting against the complexities of academic art, he tended towards the impressionist school and its use of color. Nagui’s paintings came to be characterized by a delicacy and transparency of color accompanied by a strong balanced composition as well as an obvious influence from ancient Egyptian murals.

At the end of the war, Nagui returned to France and took up residence in Giverny, where he became acquainted with Claude Monet. His association with Monet and also Marquet allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of modern impressionism and its ramifications and in his correspondence with Andre Lotte he was able to discuss the aesthetic problems that they both faced in their work.

In June of 1925 Nagui joined the Egyptian embassies in Paris, France and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Leaving government service. He was able to paint the Emperor and his court officials as well as dignitaries of the Coptic Church and other prestigious Ethiopian personalities. While in Ethiopia he also produced scenes of nature in all its natural world. The paintings Nagui produced during this time period are considered among the finest of his career as his mastery of precise mathematical composition joined with his clever blending of colors to create works of beauty and great aesthetic appeal.

Returning to Egypt in 1932, he had a positive influence on the local art movement, establishing the Alexandria atelier and serving as its president. Five years later he was appointed as Head of fine Arts High School (now the Faculty if Arts), and as the first Egyptian to hold this post, took up the position in June of 1937. During that same year an exhibition of over 40 of his Ethiopia paintings was held at the fine Arts Salon in London, at which time he also made one of the paintings available to the Tate Gallery.

In 1939 he became the director Modern Art Museum

In 1947 he role as artist and diplomat were combined when he became the director of the Egyptian Academy of Art in Rome and also served as the Egyptians Attache.

Retiring from government service he returned to Egypt, and at the age if sixty-two, established the Cairo Atelier in 1950.

Three years later, in March of 1953 he was elected as president of the Atelier with the mandate to further cooperative relations between Egyptian artists and writers and their foreign colleagues living in Cairo.

Always seeking out new subjects, Nagui went to Cyprus I 1955 to paint Bishop Makarios the leader of island’s revolution against the British colonial establishment.

After several months je returned to Egypt, travelling to Luxor where he settled for a short time in the village of Gourna.

Returning to Cairo and his studio near the Pyramids he continued to work until his studio on 5 April 1956. His studio is now the museum for his paintings under the authority of the Egyptians Ministry of Cultural. In January 1991, after the completion of renovations and the construction of additional buildings, a ceremony was held for its official reopening .