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Lot 31

 

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“Art has to evolve from your very being, like my horses… I see them as ageless and immortal. They draw chariots, in the great epics, they stand proudly in the poorest stables, they are embodiments of strength like the dragons of China.” - M F HUSAIN

So enthralled was M F Husain by the majesty, vitality, and grace of the horse that it became one of the most iconic and celebrated subjects of his oeuvre. Its many incarnations were... “Art has to evolve from your very being, like my horses… I see them as ageless and immortal. They draw chariots, in the great epics, they stand proudly in the poorest stables, they are embodiments of strength like the dragons of China.” - M F HUSAIN

So enthralled was M F Husain by the majesty, vitality, and grace of the horse that it became one of the most iconic and celebrated subjects of his oeuvre. Its many incarnations were born from diverse sources that crossed continents and cultures-from childhood memories of carousels and terracotta toys to the regal steeds of the Maharaja of Indore’s cavalry, and the grand, enigmatic horses of myths and legends, especially the Duldul, the symbolic horse of Imam Hussain carried during Muharram processions. Yet despite these various artistic references, Husain often removed the horse from its traditional associations and reinterpreted it through his own unique modernist lens. These creatures are dynamic beasts that buck and rear and gallop across the canvas with powerful strides.

It was in 1952, a couple of years after he made his first major painting of a horse, that Husain came across the works of Chinese artists Xu Beihong and Qi Baishi on a trip to China as a delegate to the World Peace Congress in Beijing. Baishi’s virtuoso calligraphic brush strokes and Beihong’s elegant yet remarkably energetic monochrome ink paintings of horses awakened his imagination and gave him “a means to imbue his horses with the expressive quality of line and form that matched his imagination[...] Husain infused his horses with a new vigor, an enlivened energy of movement combining dragon-like elements of masculinity with feminine grace.” (Susan S Bean, “East Meets East in Husain’s Horses”, Lightning by M F Husain, New York: TamarindArt in association with Asia Society Museum New York and Mapin Publishing, 2019, pp. 42-43)

Like Husain who had sought to develop a distinct Indian modernism independent of colonial influences, Beihong too had been at the helm of creating a new artistic idiom. He combined the tenets of Western modernism with the aesthetics and techniques of Chinese and Japanese ink painting. Interestingly, he also had a connection to India and was invited by Rabindranath Tagore to teach at Santiniketan in 1940. Beihong travelled across India on horseback, reaching as far as Kashmir. Curator and art critic Susan Bean notes it was on this visit to the country that he “arrived at the treatment of horses that is his most renowned artistic achievement, and that a decade later would be a transformational inspiration for Husain [...] He loved the graceful, sturdy steeds with long, steely-hoofed legs […] He now came to know even better how docile, bold, loyal, tireless and patient these animals were. From then on, the horses he painted were characterised by greater vigour. With the technique of splash ink or that of fine brushwork plus freehand strokes, he portrayed horses in a great variety and neighing, some prancing high up into the air, some trotting away. He personified horses to express his own sorrow and care, or hope and joy.” (Bean, p 44)

The enduring influence that these Chinese ink scroll paintings had on Husain is beautifully evident in the calligraphic brushwork and vertical format of the present lots 31 and 32, painted in 1984. In both paintings, the horse is shown in a three-quarter view, capturing both the front and the muscular flank of the animal. With arched necks and limbs caught mid-gallop, the horses come alive with a sense of motion and vitality. Husain would often paint spontaneously and, like in ink scroll paintings, would apply his lines directly onto the canvas, leaving little room for error. With their fluid yet confident lines, these works underscore his reputation as arguably one of the finest draughtsmen in modern Indian art.

During the 1950s, Husain also found inspiration in Blaue Reiter artist Franz Marc, which is softly evident in the posture of the horses and the rendering of their heads. The vertical meridian running through each figure, anchoring the composition and providing visual balance, recalls Marino Marini’s stylised equestrian sculptures-structured with intersecting vertical and horizontal planes “to achieve a feeling of solitary and monumental anguish.” (Shiv S Kapur, Husain, Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1972, p. 39) Closer to home, the angularity of the horses may also be linked with the triaxial bends found in classical Indian sculpture, a form which greatly interested Husain and often lent a sculptural quality to his art throughout his career.

Remarks critic Geeta Kapur, “The image is formed by a powerful line movement, by the vigorous brushstrokes, often by the diagonal compositions holding the picture plane in tension [...] Poetically the horse is a solar symbol, leading the chariot of the sun-god across the blazing skies. This is the spirit of Husain’s horses, proud and dynamic, whichever context he may place them in [...] For Husain, the horse seems to stand for super-human forces, powerful not only for its stampeding arrogance, but because of its greater sophistication.” (Geeta Kapur, “Analytical Notes on Plates Illustrating Chronological Development of Husain’s Art”, Dr Mulk Raj Anand ed., Husain: Sadanga Series by Vakils, Bombay: Vakils, p. 41)

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