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“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.” - M F HUSAIN

Husain's fascination with horses was powered by a variety of personal and artistic encounters he had had with the animal throughout his... “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.” - M F HUSAIN

Husain's fascination with horses was powered by a variety of personal and artistic encounters he had had with the animal throughout his life. He was barely three or four years old when the image of the horse started to take root as an important aspect of his consciousness. It was at this age that he would accompany his grandfather to visit the local horseshoe maker, and hear the men chat about "the advent of motor cars and dwindling horse buggies, electric lights replacing the tin lamps and lanterns... nostalgia for a time which was dying before their eyes." (Ila Pal, "Maria, The New Beginning," Beyond The Canvas: An Unfinished Portrait of M.F. Husain, New Delhi: Indus, 1994, p. 79) He would continue to encounter the animal during his childhood, as they drew tongas during Muharram processions in Indore.

Later, during his travels to China as a budding artist in 1952, he would witness Tang pottery horses as well as monochromatic paintings of the animal. The horse themed works of German Expressionist Franz Marc and Italian sculptor Marino Marini would only further his interest, and lead him to incorporate these diverse influences seamlessly and paint the animal in his own inimitable style.

As seen in the present lot, his horses are vivacious creatures. They are rarely static and are often captured in motion. "The 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." (Ebrahim Alkazi, M F Husain: The Modern Artist and Tradition, New Delhi: Art Heritage, 1978, p. 3)

Throughout his oeuvre, Husain's horses appear as both narrative and metaphorical elements. They are "subterranean creatures. Their nature is not intellectualised: it is rendered as sensation or as abstract movement, with a capacity to stir up vague premonitions and passions, in a mixture of ritualistic fear and exultant anguish." (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc., 1972, p. 43)
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The present lot comes from Pooja Bedi's personal art collection. It was originally gifted by Husain to her mother, noted Odissi dancer Protima Bedi, and has occupied a place of pride in the Bedi family's living room since the 1980s. According to Pooja, "The forward-moving positive momentum of the galloping horses and the energetic colours used by Husain continually inspired our growth, vision and dynamism."

Pooja began collecting art while she was a teenager. Her mother encouraged her to invest in a H A Gade work with her first paycheck, thus kickstarting Pooja's art collection. Today, her collection comprises of original works by Gade, Husain, Paresh Hazra, Jaideep Mehrotra, Padmanabh Bendre, Gautam Patole, as well as specially commissioned works by Brinda Miller, Laila Khan, and others.

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