Maqbool Fida Husain

Christie's London, Twentieth century Indian art, 5 October 1999, lot 86

Private Collection, Mumbai

Acquired from the above, 2002

Untitled (Musician) depicts a sitar player, their face in profile and their fingers perched on the strings. Full of life, the musician gazes confidently into the distance, barely constrained by the canvas itself as their right elbow bumps against the frame and the sitar’s kuntis, or tuning pegs, rise above the upper edge of the canvas. The movement of the music is reflected in the vigorous brushstrokes used to depict the central figure and his instrument, both of which Husain renders with a thick impasto that contrasts with the flattened reddish ochre of the background.

The present lot belongs to a series of paintings dedicated to classical Indian music and dance that Husain painted from the late 1950s to the end of the 1960s. This project drew inspiration from Ragamala paintings, a classical miniature form that presented visual interpretations of Indian musical modes, with specific ragas expressed through color, form and symbols that themselves relate to classical Indian music and poetry.