Important Notice

Souza's drew and painted heads and human forms first in the late 1940s. They gradually transformed from the cross-hatching technique that became the hallmark of his early works, to loops, whorls and squiggles delineating the distorted visages of his subjects. The present lot is Souza's portrait of London-based art critic Robert Wraight, who wrote for The Tatler, the London Evening News and was the London salerooms' correspondent... Souza's drew and painted heads and human forms first in the late 1940s. They gradually transformed from the cross-hatching technique that became the hallmark of his early works, to loops, whorls and squiggles delineating the distorted visages of his subjects. The present lot is Souza's portrait of London-based art critic Robert Wraight, who wrote for The Tatler, the London Evening News and was the London salerooms' correspondent for the Arts Review and Il Mercato delle Arti of Milan. Souza drew this portrait in 1964 and it was published as an illustration next to the title page in Wraight's book, The Art Game.

The portrait was given to Nicholas Treadwell by Souza in London in the 1960s and has remained with him ever since. Treadwell was a British gallerist and art dealer who in 1963, set up mobile art galleries that toured the United Kingdom. Souza met Treadwell on 23 September 1963 when the latter was touring and visiting artists in Hampstead, and had parked his mobile gallery in Belsize Square, where Souza lived at the time. Souza was surprised to see works by fellow Bombay Progressive, Sadanand Bakre in "Nicholas Treadwell's Mobile Art Gallery." Souza went on to supply Treadwell with art works, including the present lot, until 1967, when Souza moved to New York.

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