Shaykh Muhammad Amir of Karraya

Egyptian folk painter Shaykh Muhammad Amir of Karraya left a small album of lively street scenes around Cairo in the mid-1800s. One sheet shows a groom in a tall hat holding the reins of a white horse hitched to a red carriage, crisp outlines and soft watercolor washes bringing the everyday scene to life. If you like the way he catches light on fabric and horseflesh, tap to see the same album’s “Cairo street with domed mosque in background.”