Important Notice

For Husain, women are a quintessential representation of spiritual superiority. In this lot, the woman is portrayed with a tenderness suggesting her innocence. Her hand reaches out hesitatingly to the lamp on her thigh: a motif projecting the unconscious, the subliminal desires of a community. Bartholomew observes that "...the lamp on the woman's thigh, or beside her, with spokes, or radii, of light within the flask of the bulb, has phallic... For Husain, women are a quintessential representation of spiritual superiority. In this lot, the woman is portrayed with a tenderness suggesting her innocence. Her hand reaches out hesitatingly to the lamp on her thigh: a motif projecting the unconscious, the subliminal desires of a community. Bartholomew observes that "...the lamp on the woman's thigh, or beside her, with spokes, or radii, of light within the flask of the bulb, has phallic implications." (Bartholomew and Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., p21) Husain's paintings almost always have an anecdote. This work is allegorical of desire, of the primal instincts of lust and fear.

The use of flat colours within the confines of bold strokes, an influence of Jain miniature paintings, is an arresting idiom for the emotions he portrays. Green dominates the scene here, engulfing the woman and her surroundings. The interpretation of the colour, either for its immediate symbolic value of freshness and fertility, or its religious symbolism of Islam, is at the discretion of the viewer.

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