The Kissar player

Frederick Goodall R. A
1822-1904

Artist biography

The Kissar player

Oil on paper mounted on canvas monogrammed located and dated "FG Cairo 1859-7" lower right

Dimensions :

52 x 39,5 cm / 20.47 x 15.35 inch

Dimensions with frame :

55 x 77 cm / 21.65 x 30.31 inch

Exhibition :

Exhibition Fred Wilson "Afro Kismet" Pace Gallery London March-April 2018, New York July-August 2018, reproduced in the exhibition catalog p.103

Description of the artwork

During more than six months, from the end of 1858 to the middle of 1859, Frederick Goodall made his first trip to Egypt. He lived in Cairo where he set up a studio with his friend Carl Haag. This oil on paper was painted at the end of this firts stay, in July 1859. The painter will take up this subject very carefully for the realization of his painting entitled "The song of a Nubian Slave" painted in 1863 and now preserved at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Originally from Nubia, the kissar is a lyre originally made of a tortoise shell covered with sheepskin, from which five gut strings are stretched, held at the end by a handle.