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Lot 5

 

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Born in 1872 in the village of Pitha near Surat, Manchershaw Fakirjee Pithawalla moved to Bombay where he was discovered and trained by John Griffiths, the then principal of J J School of Art. He went on to gain recognition as an artist and exhibited his works widely in Shimla, Darjeeling, Madras, and Pune, where he also won several awards. In 1905, he was commissioned to produce an album celebrating Indian women to be presented to Queen Mary on... Born in 1872 in the village of Pitha near Surat, Manchershaw Fakirjee Pithawalla moved to Bombay where he was discovered and trained by John Griffiths, the then principal of J J School of Art. He went on to gain recognition as an artist and exhibited his works widely in Shimla, Darjeeling, Madras, and Pune, where he also won several awards. In 1905, he was commissioned to produce an album celebrating Indian women to be presented to Queen Mary on her Indian visit.

In 1911, Pithawalla went to Europe where he held a solo show at the Dore Gallery in London. “It was the first exhibition by an Indian artist, as noted by The Graphic… His observation of character was unforced, his poses ‘natural’ and his handling of figures in interiors tactful...” (Partha Mitter, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India: Occidental Orientations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 84?85)

Pithawalla went on to become a well-known portrait artist for his exceptional attention to detail. In reference to the present lot, author Giles Tillotson observes that “there is a particular sensitivity, however, in his portraits of Parsee men. The searching intelligent gaze of a Parsee scholar points to a special empathy. The skilful handling of the Kashmir shawl in this work is also noteworthy, with the embroidered pattern being suggested economically by a few free brushstrokes.” (Gilles Tillotson, “Making Magic Through the Real: Some Early Episodes of Modern Indian Art,” Modern Indian Painting: Jane & Kito de Boer Collection, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt Ltd, 2019, p. 79) It is owing to his adeptness in capturing the character, emotion, and materiality in portraits that Pithawalla is remembered as one of the most celebrated salon artists trained in the academic realism style of painting.

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