Overall: 37.5cm (15in) x 26cm (10.2in)
Half length portrait photograph of King Farouk I of Egypt (reigned 1936-52) in uniform. Signed and dated in ink in the lower mount ‘Farouk R’ / ’12/III/50’. Contained in gilt tooled maroon leather glazed frame, embossed with foliate scrolls and the king’s cypher under an Egyptian crown.
King Farouk I of Egypt (1920-1965) was born in Cairo and educated at the RMA Woolwich before succeeding his father Faud I at the age of sixteen. He revelled in the trappings of royalty and travelled to Europe on shopping sprees, earning the ire of many of his subjects. He amassed huge collections of coins, watches and motor cars including a Mercedes Benz 540K gifted by Adolf Hitler. Following the Suez debacle of 1950, the CIA initiated his overthrow. At his ousting by a military coup in 1952, he fled Egypt. In exile in Monaco and Italy he continued to live as a bon viveur, finally expiring over lunch in a restaurant in Rome whilst indebted to the New York jeweller Harry Winston for the purchase of the 94-carat diamond, the Star of the East.