Description

David Austen was commissioned to produce this painting for the Entrance Hall of the British Embassy in Cairo by the Government Art Collection, on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Austen has a long-standing interest in Egyptian art and made his first visit to Egypt as a result of this commission.
Austen worked on Cairo Painting for about six months, building it up in layers, with much re-painting and repositioning of the objects, some of which have faint numbers on them derived from museum accession numbers. The surface of the painting has a very matt and dry appearance. The background colour of Cairo Painting may have been influenced by his visits to museums in Cairo, which are typically very dark. The colour is produced by a pigment called Caput Mortuum – which translates as ‘dead head’ – and was originally made from the crushed bones of mummies.

Austen uses a wide variety of objects, including Egyptian artefacts, as a starting point for his paintings rather than a direct reference; he looks to them primarily for shape, texture and colour. Although the imagery of the painting is based upon Egyptian-style vessels, Austen is primarily concerned with conveying the contradiction inherent in portraying three-dimensional objects on a flat canvas, and trying to give them a sense of space and solidity while still emphasising the fact that they are essentially just paint on canvas.