Ragheb Ayad married Emma Caly at a time when he was well on his way to great fame. Recognized for his utterly human, insanely caricature-like, pioneering depictions of Souks in Cairo and Cafés in Assouan, Ragheb was thirty-eight, Emma, thirty-three. Five years her senior, the Egyptian painter was more than just a partner for the Italian aspiring artist. Widely recognized as the founding father of the Egyptian popular expressionist movement, Ragheb Ayad was one of the best painters of his generation, and one of the most respected of the twentieth-century. Working in the shadow of her husband, Emma established herself as a distinguished art instructor and an esteemed painter in her own right, but as with many artistic couples, the husband gained more popularity than the wife, and eventually, Emma was lost in the gaps of history. Married for over half a century, Ragheb and Emma were never the subject of a joint exhibition displaying the two together - neither during their lifetime, nor after their death.
