Jehangir Sabavala (b. 1922)

Acquired by the current owner directly from the artist in the early 1960s

Ranjit Hoskote, Sabavala: Pilgrim, Exile, Sorcerer, Bombay, 1998, p.48.

Overall condition very good. Thick application of oil paint on rough surface of masonite board. Color is brighter and fresher than catalogue illustration.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Born in 1922 into the elite Readymoney clan of Parsi aristocracy– one of the most influential families of Raj-era Bombay– Jehangir Sabavala rose to prominence as a painter in the early 1950s, at a moment when European High Modernism was sweeping across the international art scene and fermenting an avant-garde zeal and fervor on the Indian subcontinent. The conflicts and challenges faced by post-War Europe and post-Partition/post-Independence India, informed by a collective of artists and collectors with a foot on both continents, gave rise to the Indian avant-garde establishment, of which Sabavala was a distinguished member. 

"From 1947 to 1951," explains art historian Ranjit Hoskote, "Sabavala studied [in Paris] at the Academie Julian as an apprentice to the Impressionist tradition, and at the Academie André Lhote, where the eponymous Lhote imparted knowledge of the once-revolutionary and anti-academic idiom of the Cubists with academic rigor. Even though Sabavala would shuttle among the Academie Julian, Lhote's atelier and, somewhat later, the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, it was his tenure with Lhote that proved to be crucial to his work. Through him, Sabavala internalized the radical Cubist doctrines of conception and perception: the Cubist emphasis on regarding the perceived object as constituted, not by its essence, but by its relations to other objects. Underscoring conceptual process rather than retinal impression, the Cubist painting demonstrated its subjects as an assemblage of planes – as a structure autonomous of nature, the product of sometimes contradictory stresses and devices rather than a harmonious unity of effects."  (Ranjit Hoskote, Sabavala, Bombay, 1998, p.49).

Throughout the 1950s Sabavala experimented with the plasticity of Synthetic Cubism. Executed in 1959, Sundown represents the apogee of the artist's early Cubist works – exhibiting a highly stylized tautness in form through the architecture of intersecting planes, sharp angularities and wedges of light. Sundown utilizes the artist's characteristic muted palette, capturing the arc of evening light over the harbor on the Adriatic Sea.

In the artist's own words: "Sundown was for me a seminal painting during my period of research into synthetic cubism. On the left of the painting sit two Gondolieri, gazing out to sea. A young sailor snatches a siesta, sprawled across the beach. To the right stands a couple – possible visiting tourists in Venice, one of the finest jewels in the Italian tourist crown. Gondolas are tethered to their stakes awaiting customers, as the sun sets into a gold and olive sea. The intricate patterning of the canvas, the feeling of planes, the perspective were my obsession fifty years ago. How does one achieve all of this and yet maintain a painterly quality?" (Jehangir Sabavala, personal correspondance, 30 August 2010)