Important Notice

"One reason that I went back to the Gupta period of sculpture was to study the human form - when the British ruled we were taught to draw a figure with the proportions from Greek and Roman sculpture... In the east the human form is an entirely different structure... the way a woman walks in the village there are three breaks... from the feet, the hips and the shoulder, they move in rhythm... the walk of the European is erect and archaic" (as... "One reason that I went back to the Gupta period of sculpture was to study the human form - when the British ruled we were taught to draw a figure with the proportions from Greek and Roman sculpture... In the east the human form is an entirely different structure... the way a woman walks in the village there are three breaks... from the feet, the hips and the shoulder, they move in rhythm... the walk of the European is erect and archaic" (as quoted in Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 102)

So said Husain, and indeed we see this belief brought to life on canvas in the present lot. One sculpturesque woman dominates the plane, her body in the tribhanga pose that so vividly evokes the movement and energy of classical Indian dance. A kneeling woman is engrossed in daily chores, the animals and pots around her rooting both firmly in an Indian village. And yet, the accoutrements of Indian village life have been injected with symbolism. The inclusion of animals hints at myth - animal symbolism is a prominent theme in Indian lore. Monumental yet simultaneously humble, works such as this epitomise Husain's relationship with the female form within an Indian setting.

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