In 1948, Sayed Haider Raza visited Kashmir on the invitation of Sheikh Abdullah where he met Henri Cartier-Bresson. The famed French artist and photographer recognized Raza’s extraordinary skill, imparting some advice that inspired a deep connection with French art: ‘A painting is constructed like a building on a sound base with walls, base, roof, doors, windows and if it does not have these it is fragile… [You] have to construct a painting with a sense of geometry. Remember the name Paul Cezanne…” (R. Hoskote, A. Vajpeyi, Y. Dalmia, A. Doshi (eds.), Vistar: S.H. Raza, Afterimage Publishing, Mumbai, 2012, p. 138)

After studying at the Nagpur School of Art (1939-43) and the Sir J.J. School of Art (1943-47) in Bombay, Raza moved to Paris as a student on a French government scholarship at the École des Beaux-Arts. Almost immediately, he expressed his enthusiasm for the learning opportunities in the European city and the art and culture he could experience first-hand. Ram Kumar, upon receiving Raza at the train station in Paris, noted:

Part of Raza’s ethos was his meticulous research and intense focus on his craft. Paris offered a rich and nurturing space for Raza to develop his artistry as an important center of cultural and artistic exchange in the post-war era. Raza began his education influenced by this environment and the great French artists who had broadened the scope of modern art. As per the advice of Cartier-Bresson years earlier, Raza studied Cezanne’s work at museums in the city, remaining focused on the structure of his compositions.

Moving from the fluid, kaleidoscopic watercolor cityscapes that defined his work in the 40s, Raza’s years at École des Beaux-Arts (1950-1953) marked a distinct period of paintings that distilled his interest in landscape and color into new configurations. Referred to as his ‘classic phase,’ this period saw the artist use curious, cubist forms and saturated hues to reimagine his Parisian surroundings. These works are as exacting as they are experimental, showing Raza’s rigorous self-discipline as a student artist and the foundation upon which he built his abstract works of the later 1950s.

Tout Houses is an exceptional example of this period, set apart by its tonal harmony and ease. With a simple row of houses in balanced reds, oranges and blues, Raza captures the European townscape and emphasizes its verticality. Chimneys extend into the sky, windows are delicately paned with thin lines of black ink and facades are decorated with contrasting colors and shapes. Suspended within a light blue surrounding, the current work is unique in its specificity. Buildings bear storefront names – ‘Au Petit Max’ (As Little As Possible) and ‘A Le Duize’ (On the Twelfth) – nodding to particular places rather than capturing a wholly abstract landscape. The orange house on the right bears a cross on its roof, a common feature of the French townscape and, by extension, Raza’s 1950s landscapes.

Tout Houses is a masterpiece from this short period of time that represents the artist’s enthusiasm for the study of construction and his unbridled curiosity in Paris, a city that he would soon call home.

This lot featured in an early sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian art in 2000 as part of the landmark single-owner series of the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection at Sotheby's. These auctions established the international market for the region's 20th-century art, and over the following two decades, the demand for works by leading artists in the category has witnessed exceptional growth. Most recently, Raza was honored with a landmark retrospective at Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2023, renewing market and institutional interest in works from across Raza's oeuvre. In March 2023 in New York, a 1952 example of the artist's 'classic' period, Houses, achieved the world record for the artist for both a work on paper and a 1950s work overall, selling for $1.3 million against a pre-sale estimate of $200,000 – 300,000.

This season, Tout Houses returns to Sotheby's as one of the star lots of the sale. Formerly from the collection of two of the earliest and era-defining stalwarts of modern South Asian art, the current lot is a work of exceptional provenance and academic importance.