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“Lost is the passage of sound in my jungle. Today the burnt bamboos have scratched the heart of silent sky, And greens sucked in elephant jugs. White tusks daggered inside the stomach of black mountain. They say: For seven days the passage of sound was lost.” - M F HUSAIN

Animals recur frequently as motifs in M F Husain’s works, possessing graceful and energetic forms. Depictions of elephants, tigers, and horses, which are revered... “Lost is the passage of sound in my jungle. Today the burnt bamboos have scratched the heart of silent sky, And greens sucked in elephant jugs. White tusks daggered inside the stomach of black mountain. They say: For seven days the passage of sound was lost.” - M F HUSAIN

Animals recur frequently as motifs in M F Husain’s works, possessing graceful and energetic forms. Depictions of elephants, tigers, and horses, which are revered in Indian mythology, reference various qualities such as strength, energy, magnificence, power and fertility in their myriad postures and moods. “When we look at these creatures we must remember that the animal is not the subject of Husain’s painting; it is the demonic principle that he depicts which is neither good nor bad. The... horses and elephants have become symbols of power and pursuit, or of mysterious encounters.” (Rati Bartholomew, Pablo Bartholomew, Carmen Kagal and Rosalyn D’Mello eds., Richard Bartholomew: The Art Critic, New Delhi: BART, 2012, p. 153)

It was also characteristic of Husain to depict a combination of various protagonists – a medley of animal figures or animals juxtaposed alongside humans – to capture and convey a hidden, often heavily metaphorical, relationship. “Husain’s metaphor is rich and of great expressiveness. It brings a wide sweep to his way of looking at things, to his many approaches to reality. His symbols and represented objects are often startling in juxtaposition because they are drawn from such far reaches of artistic memory. Dark, intuitive, sometimes traditional symbols are cast within a contemporary design and given meanings that seem valid for this and every other time. And if the innocent in art is also the original, as indeed it is, then innocence is the other noteworthy feature of Husain’s work.” (Shiv Kapur, Husain, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1961, p. i)

This is evident in the present lot, which brings together an assortment of animal figures in close interaction with one another, in a manner reminiscent of the tropical compositions of Henri Rousseau (see reference image). Each animal depicted in the present lot holds great significance in Hindu mythology – the tiger being one of the vehicles of Durga, the Hindu goddess of war, while the monkey could be a reference to the deity Hanuman. The most imposing animal in the present lot is the elephant, also often viewed as a sacred animal. The elephant is also symbolic of “power and pursuit, or of mysterious encounters” in Husain’s paintings. (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc., 1971, p. 20) Seated upon the animal’s back and playing with a ball is Ganesha, the Hindu god of wisdom recognisable by his elephant–head. Juxtaposition, such as that in the present lot, was often a means for Husain to create a palpable tension that breathed life into his works.

Husain’s animals are rarely static and are often captured in motion, as can be seen in the present lot. Also evident is how Husain heightened emotions in his canvases using fluid brushstrokes and bold lines. Husain was a colourist who often devised unique colour schemes based on the themes he dealt with – here, he uses various shades of green, red and blues to situate the scene within a forest, but blurs the edges so that “the dramatic is transmuted and becomes symbolic as each image is separated from its life–context, and unsupported by time and history, is given the freedom of an aesthetic environment.” (Husain, p. 20)

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