Important Notice

“I have not seen these wild animals in the jungle. I have seen them imprisoned in stone on the walls of Khajuraho, Konark, Mahabalipuram-the temples of medieval India.” - M F HUSAIN

Powerful, expressive, and filled with vigour, the present lot exemplifies one of the defining icons of M F Husain’s vast artistic oeuvre-the horse. The artist was first captivated by the animal’s vitality and grace as a young boy in Indore where he... “I have not seen these wild animals in the jungle. I have seen them imprisoned in stone on the walls of Khajuraho, Konark, Mahabalipuram-the temples of medieval India.” - M F HUSAIN

Powerful, expressive, and filled with vigour, the present lot exemplifies one of the defining icons of M F Husain’s vast artistic oeuvre-the horse. The artist was first captivated by the animal’s vitality and grace as a young boy in Indore where he would observe tonga horses and those belonging to the cavalry of the Holkar king at the workshop of the local farrier who was a close friend of his grandfather. In his works, the horse as a symbol came to transcend its formal associations with man and war to represent elegance, passion, freedom, power, and virility.

Often captured in motion-as in the present lot- Husain’s “horses are rampant or galloping; the manes, the fury, the working buttocks, the prancing legs, and the strong neighing heads with dilated nostrils are blocks of colour which are vivid or tactile or are propelled in their significant progression by strokes of the brush or sweeps of the palette knife. The activity depicted is transformed in the activity of paint.” (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc, 1972, p. 20)

Husain’s artistic practice was grounded in an appreciation for the syncretic nature of Indian culture and he drew from various sources, including folk and classical traditions, which he interpreted through a modernist lens. In the present lot, the influence of the image of the Duldul, the effigy of Imam Hussain’s horse that was carried during Muharram processions that the artist witnessed in his youth, is evident in the rising posture of the horse with its front legs stretched out. Another formative influence on Husain was the Sung dynasty renderings of horses and the work of Xu Beihong which he first saw on a visit to China in 1952. This enduring influence of Chinese art traditions can be seen in the raised mane, open jaws, and flared nostrils of the subject of the present lot.

“Later, in Europe, where as he found the Renaissance horses unexciting, he was strongly attracted by Franz Marc’s work and Marino Marini’s archaic equestrian sculpture, with its balance between horizontal and vertical lines to achieve a feeling of solitary and monumental anguish. Husain’s own use of the horse motif has been, however, more intuitive and complex...” (Bartholomew and Kapur, p. 39–40) Acknowledging his varied sources of inspiration Husain once remarked, “My horses, like lightning, cut across many horizons. From the battlefield of Karbala to Bankura terracotta, from the Chinese Tse Pei Hung horse to St. Marco’s horse, from ornate armoured Duldul to [the] challenging white of Ashwamed... the cavalcade of my horses is multidimensional.” (Artist quoted in Husain, Mumbai: Tata Press, 1988, p. 83)

The present lot also exemplifies the artist’s ability to harness the vigour and elegance of horses through a masterful use of line and colour. The figure occupies almost the entirety of the canvas, with its surface subtly broken with strong lines, giving it the feel of armour. The energy of the galloping and bucking horse is barely contained within the painting. Notes critic Richard Bartholomew, “...Husain’s horses are subterranean creatures. Their nature is not intellectualized: it is rendered as a sensation or as abstract movement, with a capacity to stir up vague premonitions and passions, in a mixture of ritualistic fear and exultant anguish.” (Bartholomew and Kapur, p. 43)

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