Sayed Haider Raza

Sayed Haider Raza settled in France in 1950 and the decade that followed was a key time of experimentation for the painter. The early 50s were defined by his cubist, Sienese-inspired townscapes, exemplified in lots 8 and 9. This perfect, carefully composed world soon erupted into an expressive rendering of Raza's French environs. Following his smooth and refined use of gouache, the artist turned to oil paint, executing his works with thicker impasto and greater spontaneity. 

'For the next fifteen years, Raza was to work doggedly, persistently, with great strength and determination, inspired primarily by the formal construction of Cézanne and the passionate exploration of colour by van Gogh. His medium changed from gouache in tempera to impasto in oil, signifying a major breakthrough with the paint coming into its own.' (Y. Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001, p. 151)

Painted in 1957, the current landscape embodies important aspects of this shift in the artist's style, and forms an important prelude to the more Expressionist phase which was to follow. The brightly lit scene is executed with Raza's increasingly gestural lines and brushwork, whilst the attention to detail and considered construction of the composition holds echoes of Raza's earlier, more delicate works. As the 50s progressed, Raza's landscapes became increasingly abstract, with identifiable architectural features later disappearing from his paintings altogether. The current lot is a rare work that bridges these key phases in the painter's career. The horizon almost acts as a dividing line between the periods - the foreground shows a terrain in flux, with a vivid and disordered application of color, representative of the more abstracted nature of Raza's late 50s and early 60s works. At the same time, the skyline, with houses and telegraph line, pays homage to his meticulous, architecturally focused early works.