Horse Dance

Ragheb Ayad was an artist, educator, curator and museum director. In 1908, he was one of the first students to enroll at the Egyptian School of Fine Arts (Madrassat al-Funun al-Jamila al-Misriyya) in Cairo. While finishing further studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Ayad abandoned academic styles and focused his practice on an expressive aesthetic that combined various approaches.

Horse Dance employs rapid gestures, thin lines and light colours. Ayad’s style is characterised by the vibrancy of textured strokes, creating a dynamic movement. The scene takes place in the countryside, where a village with traditional houses appears in the background. Two fellahin (Egyptian peasants) ride richly decorated horses, surrounded by musicians. Throughout his career, Ayad portrayed everyday rural and popular folk scenes, including the marketplace, peasants labouring in the fields, people going about their daily lives in cafés and various customs ingrained in Egyptian society.