Important Notice

M.F. 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... M.F. 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 experience of loss, these figures, like the ones in the present lot, are frequently faceless, as if "...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).

In depicting a group of nameless and largely featureless women, some shrouded and some bare, Husain accentuates the atmosphere of loss and longing in this canvas from the 1950s. In addition, the artist uses a spare palette of greys, browns and greens to heighten this mood, and filters out all background details to sharpen the viewer's focus on the mournful group of women he has painted.

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