Princess Fadia of Egypt’s childhood portrait, painted by her uncle Mahmoud Saïd in 1952 before a military revolution forced her family into exile, has resurfaced for auction by Christie’s in Abu Dhabi over seventy years later.
The painting captures the nine-year-old princess wearing a pink organza dress and a white hair bow, preserving a fragile glimpse of the royal household before the Free Officers Movement upended the monarchy on July 23, 1952. King Faruk I was given twenty-four hours to abdicate and leave Egypt, embarking on an exile that separated Fadia from her mother, Queen Farida, for more than five years.
- Mahmoud Saïd painted the portrait of Princess Fadia in 1952, capturing her in a pink organza dress just months before the revolution.
- Christie’s is bringing the historic artwork to auction in Abu Dhabi, marking its return to public view after more than seventy years.
- The piece survived royal exile, military confiscations, and civil war bombings before eventually hanging in Queen Farida’s modest Paris apartment.
Fadia was born on December 15, 1943, dividing her early years between grand palaces in Cairo and the summer residences of Montaza and Ras el Tin in Alexandria.
Despite the outward majesty, her son Michel-Shamil Orloff described the environment as a golden cage where she required permission to see her father and was forbidden from walking alone outside. Her primary solace was her pony, Black Beauty, with whom she rode along the seafront.
When the July 23 revolution forced King Faruk, his second wife Narriman, and their four children to board the royal yacht for Capri and Rome, Queen Farida was left behind in Cairo. The revolutionary committee denied her permission to leave the city, separating her from her daughters.
While state authorities confiscated most of the queen’s possessions, the portrait of young Fadia remained in her possession. Mother and daughter finally reunited over five years later in an accidental meeting in Beirut.
When civil war and subsequent bombings destroyed that home, Queen Farida packed up once more, carrying the surviving canvas with her to Paris and hanging it on the wall of a modest apartment.
Meanwhile, Fadia attended boarding school in Switzerland, developed a passion for languages, and eventually married Swiss equestrian Pierre-Said Orloff, with whom she had two sons. She built a career as a translator while horses remained her lifelong companions.
“Para mi madre era difícil hablar de su vida en Egipto antes de la revolución”, Orloff told HOLA, noting that his mother only broke her silence late in life to recall the smiles of the Egyptians and galloping by the sea.
Fadia passed away at age 59 in Switzerland, but her remains were later returned to Egypt to rest beside her father in the Al-Rifa’i mosque, completing a journey back to the land she left behind.
