Important Notice

For Souza, landscapes were as integral a part of his idiom as portraits, if not more. The artist had a keen eye and mind, and a repertoire of words and images to express his perceptions. He vividly speaks of landscapes in his autobiography, Words & Lines, and his writing reveals the impact they had on him. He showed great attention to detail in documenting what he saw and experienced, and conjured rich visuals of the places he had visited and... For Souza, landscapes were as integral a part of his idiom as portraits, if not more. The artist had a keen eye and mind, and a repertoire of words and images to express his perceptions. He vividly speaks of landscapes in his autobiography, Words & Lines, and his writing reveals the impact they had on him. He showed great attention to detail in documenting what he saw and experienced, and conjured rich visuals of the places he had visited and lived in.

The present lot shows an aerial view of a town, perhaps Goa. In the left, a church towers over blocks of houses; the Roman Catholic Church held a powerful sway over the artist and featured regularly in his works. We notice that the picture is incomplete: the viewer is shown a very specific part of the town. Though Souza outlines the structure of the city, the details are chaotic. The houses appear mosaic-like and disjointed, separated only by thick, black lines and strokes of ochre, white, mauve and blue. Speaking of his landscapes, Yashodhara Dalmia observes that they "...seem to be driven by a cataclysmic force, which wreaks havoc." ("A Passion for the Human Figure", The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, 2001, pg.93)

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