Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915)

Sotheby's, New York, March 19, 2008, lot 14

Overall good condition. Thick application of paint in buildings and sun against thinner brushwork in background. A few small cracks visible in upper left arch of gateway. Yellow slightly brighter than catalogue illustration.
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After 1948, Husain began to travel widely throughout the Indian subcontinent, from the mountains of the Himalayas to the jungles of Kerala, to experience the landscape and various cultures of India firsthand. During his travels, he was attracted to the varying landscapes, the different people he encountered, and the stories and artistic traditions that they had inherited. Yashodhara Dalmia explains: "[Husain] drew from the classical, the miniature and folk, and attempted to meld it into a language which formulated the present. It allowed him to express a perceived reality which, while being seamless, mythical and vast, was at the same time hurtling towards industrialization and modernization." (Yashodhara Dalmia, "MF Husain: Reinventing India", introductory essay to MF Husain, Early Masterpieces 1950s – 70s, Asia House, London, 2006)

Although the landscape of India is a common subject for Husain, landscapes devoid of figures are exceptionally rare. Executed in 1964, Peeli Dhoop (Yellow Sunshine) belongs to a small group of such paintings that Husain created in 1964, which also include Chittore Fort and Red Desert. The appearance of this group of semi-abstract landscapes at this stage in his career is interesting for it was a period when his paintings came under increased scrutiny from his critics. Many felt that his reluctance to move away from figurative painting was limiting his scope and standing as a true artist of the Modernist movement. This small group of more abstracted paintings may have represented in his own mind an answer to these critics, for they demonstrate his skill as a colorist. These can also be more closely compared to SH Raza's 1950s landscapes – who, by the early 1960s, was coming to be recognized as one of the leading abstractionist artists of India. However, unlike, Raza, whose works became increasingly abstract and gestural, Husain soon reverted to his interest in the human figure.