M F Husain frequently turned to Indian mythology and folklore in his art, using these narratives as a lens through which to understand the country’s social and cultural fabric and forge a connection with the everyday viewer. The iconography of gods and goddesses was a constant presence during his early years, from the deities of shrines that dotted the landscape of his childhood home to the vibrant spectacles of Ramleela and other folk theatre... M F Husain frequently turned to Indian mythology and folklore in his art, using these narratives as a lens through which to understand the country’s social and cultural fabric and forge a connection with the everyday viewer. The iconography of gods and goddesses was a constant presence during his early years, from the deities of shrines that dotted the landscape of his childhood home to the vibrant spectacles of Ramleela and other folk theatre traditions. As an adult, he reimagined these familiar figures and scenes from the Indian epics with a modernist aesthetic, offering audiences a renewed way of engaging with India’s rich cultural and literary heritage.

As art historian Yashodhara Dalmia observes, “In negotiating the iconic, Husain had re- invested it with a mythic aura, restoring its original function... In the ancient epics, the gods stood for immanent energies and were always symbolically represented, imbued as they were with a universal significance. Husain, under modernism, empowered them with a symbolic presence while contextualizing them in the contemporary, thereby layering their form with multiple meanings.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Metaphor for Modernity”, The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 114)

In the present lot, Husain captures the playfulness of Krishna as the young divine cowherd in the sacred city of Vrindavan. He is shown perched on a cow, playing the flute and surrounded by a group of gopis (milkmaids). A peacock on a nearby branch also seems drawn to the music. Despite the modernist style, the deity remains immediately identifiable through recognisable attributes such as his deep blue skin, flute, and peacock feather.

“All forms of art are born from one’s roots.” - M F HUSAIN

Yet, even as the composition remains contemporary in spirit, it also borrows elements from classical Indian art, particularly miniature paintings and sculpture. The flat perspective and warm colour palette that beautifully animates the scene suggest the influence of the Basohli and Malwa schools of miniature art. Husain had first seen these works in 1948 at an exhibition of classical Indian art at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, and continued to absorb their visual sensibility and colour palette into his own art. Critic Geeta Kapur notes, “Husain loved the colour layout of these schools: the hot, bright colours, especially red and yellow (set off in the case of Malwa by blue-grey, chocolate-brown, and dull green), and their style of applying it flat over large areas which cuts short any naturalistic illusions contained in the themes as such.” (Geeta Kapur, “Maqbool Fida Husain: Folklore and Fiesta”, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1978, p 139)

The gopis are depicted as graceful village belles, rooting the composition in pastoral India which was a formative theme for Husain and remained central to his artistic imagination. Kapur writes, “The rural Indian gave him the benefit of his roots and at the same time the full resource of a rich mythology… the image of the peasant became for him both a secure reality and a cultural symbol.” (Kapur, p. 126) Their lyrical forms adopt the tribhanga or tri-axial pose, quintessentially associated with classical Indian dance and sculpture. Remarking on this stylistic choice that became synonymous with his depictions of women, the artist once explained, “One reason why I went back to the Gupta period of sculpture was to study the human form-when the British ruled we were taught to draw a figure with the proportions from Greek and Roman sculpture...That was what I thought was wrong...In the east the human form is an entirely different structure...the way a woman walks in the village there are three breaks...from the feet, the hips and shoulder...they move in rhythm...the walk of a European is erect and archaic.” (Artist quoted in Dalmia, p. 102)

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