From Cairo. From the journey to Egypt

From Cairo. From the Journey to Egypt shows the Egyptian capital as Ciągliński experienced it in 1903 — a city of narrow medieval streets, domes, minarets, and the ceaseless activity of a great oriental metropolis. Cairo was a standard stop on the European artistic pilgrimage to Egypt, offering an overwhelming contrast of ancient Islamic architecture and modern colonial city. Ciągliński's Post-Impressionist eye found in Cairo's compressed urban landscape a challenge quite different from the open desert and temple studies elsewhere in his series.

The urban complexity of Cairo gives this work a denser, more compressed quality than the open landscape studies. Ciągliński simplifies architecture into interlocking warm and cool planes. The palette is dominated by dusty ochre and pale blue, with shadows in warm brown.