Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915)

Overall good condition, but would benefit from light cleaning. Color slightly 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.

In 1959, Husain visited the sacred Indian city of Benares – the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world – for the first time, together with fellow artist Ram Kumar. Deeply affected by the temples, ghats, mystics and pilgrims that mark the everyday life of Benares (now Varanasi) both Husain and Kumar went on to create multiple works inspired by the rhythms of this ancient city. 

Art historian Daniel Herwitz notes: "Benares, the holy city on the Ganges where the cremated ashes of the dead are thrown into the [river] to return to God, is a place of the beginning and end of all things. It is the city of Shiva, the god of destruction; but it is also a city of active recycling and transformation, with its pilgrims bathing in the holy waters, its priests and holy men engaged in acts of ritual, and its focus on the recycling of the souls of the dead through the waters of the Ganges. All this occurs in a burning North Indian sun, which mixes with the smoke of cremations to envelop the space... Figures and background are partly merged in that the figures are silhouettes filled in by the background itself. There are no shadows; no light is filtered. The space seems cast as a dramatic enclosure where fate is being played out...

"Husain's lifelong aim has been to find a voice... with which to acknowledge the richness and throes of contemporary Indian life in a way that also seeks to preserve India traditional. His art aims for the condition of Benares, in which creative innovation, although destructive, will also recycle or otherwise preserve India's roots." (Daniel Herwitz, Husain, Bombay, 1988, p.17).

In this large work, the Hindu goddess Ganga – the personification of the River Ganges – is the central figure of Husain's canvas. Performing her ritual ablutions of purification, brass kumbh in hand, Ganga is flanked by the ubiquitous symbols of the city: the sacred cow, small lingam temples under pipal trees, Hanuman the monkey god, yogis and sadhus in meditation, and the distinguishing sandstone temple spires which give Benares its famous glow at dawn and dusk. 

Husain explains: "Twenty years since Ram Kumar and myself sailed silently close to the ghats of Varanasi, my fascination for that eternal city is ever growing... Every morning, the proverbial Morn of Benares (Subah-e-Benares) would glow in gold and we pass (sic) by many ghats without a word. Only later we break our silence at a roadside Bengali coffee house!"  (Dhnyaneshwar Nadkarni, Husain: Riding the Lightning, Bombay, 1996, p.110)