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Lot 26

 

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In the 1950s and 60s, M.F. Husain painted a series of canvases including the present lot, featuring a solitary woman against a muted or monochromatic background. In these paintings, like several of his other early works, Husain's "…women are monumental in their fortitude and yet humble and ordinary in a duality that Husain expresses effortlessly…far from arousing passion, [they] are ascetic without any of the abundant sexuality found in [the]... In the 1950s and 60s, M.F. Husain painted a series of canvases including the present lot, featuring a solitary woman against a muted or monochromatic background. In these paintings, like several of his other early works, Husain's "…women are monumental in their fortitude and yet humble and ordinary in a duality that Husain expresses effortlessly…far from arousing passion, [they] are ascetic without any of the abundant sexuality found in [the] Indian sculptures" that inspired much of his figuration (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001, p. 101, 110).

The female figure has persisted as one of the leitmotifs in Husain's body of work since his earliest experiments with paint. Reflecting his upbringing and early experiences of loss, these figures, like the one in the present lot are "…enshrouded in an invisible veil, the simplicity of their form countered by their inaccessibility…They could well be women from his own childhood in a Muslim household, where the feminine presence alternates between the secretive and the visible. The suppressed yearning could be for his mother, who died when he was only two years old, leaving him feeling permanently bereft" (Ibid., p. 111).

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