"I was born with an impressionistic inclination. And I am going to be so."

With this short decisive sentence, as if it were an expression of dogmatic belief, Youssef Kamel defined his vision, and his ideology. His vision was confined to one style to which he stuck doggedly, ignoring the fact that he came to impressionism a full 50 years after its inception. In this he was merely following the instructions of his professors at the academy of Rome. He mixed academic naturalism with a fresh impressionistic touch, and a palette rich in colour, `celebrating bright light.

Youssef Kamel was Born in Cairo in 1891.

In 1908, he Studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cairo. In 1921, he Traveled to Rome to resume studying art

In 1922, he returned from Italy. He painted Egyptian nature, popular districts and rural suburbs, and he painted the events of daily life in Egypt's lanes, mosques, and crowded houses. Kamel had lived his early manhood in Bab El-Sha'riya district. This factor may have saved his art from falling into the trap of orientalism.

The populism of Youssef Kamel was reinforced by the spontaneity of his response to national democratic growth in culture and art. He didn't care for social, political or ideological claims. His impulses were idiosyncratic, and close to the spirit of the ordinary man.

Kamel reached his own spiritual climax after moving to the rural suburb of Matariyya. He located his studio in the middle of the fields, surrounded by the houses of farmers. He lived in the middle of their daily activities. He became much closer to the spirit of the rural classes, which he depicted in his art.

Henceforth, he abstained from living in the capital. Despite this, the capital retained temptations of fame and wealth, though Kamel continued his rural exile, painting every day. His paintings, celebrated the daily work of his neighbours, who in turn respected his profession as a natural job.

Urban alienation was unknown in this environment: once the farmers recognized themselves in his paintings, time and familiarity turned the neighbours into friends.

Kamel treated his subjects with sympathy and care. His artistic work was an oasis in their life of toil. He didn't paint their misery and hard work, as the work of a farmer is—in itself—an elevated human value. For him, both male and female farmers are meek human beings, satisfied with their life, and are to be painted as such. Seldom do we find a "portrait" reflecting the features of the farmer's face. Keen to confirm the unity of creatures in nature, Kamel was attached to painting animals and birds.

Youssef Kamel remained remote from any "tension and contradiction." He remained a captive to optical realism—stuck, as it were—at the first level of reality. Within such limits his final works displayed great mastery. They are characterized by Kamel's courage in treating his old themes, popular districts, and rural scenes, with vigorous brush strokes which delineate form with the minimum of touches.

For Kamel, light became internal, emitted from within. In order to give his figures a degree of stability, he didn't hesitate to use black, a colour which the impressionists disdained. He adopted the techniques of impressionism to suit the particularities of Egypt's landscape, with its shining sun and acute shades.

He, loyally, instructed it to his students at Faculty of Fine Arts till he retired.

Kamel died in 1973.