Lot 89
  • 89

Francis Newton Souza

Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
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Description

  • Francis Newton Souza
  • Untitled (St. Sebastian)
  • Signed and dated 'Souza 61' upper left
  • Oil pastel and polyvinyl acetate on canvas
  • 71.5 x 53.5 cm. (28 1/4 x 21 in.)

Provenance

Acquired in London, circa late 1970s

Catalogue Note

During 1961, Francis Newton Souza produced a number of canvases where he experimented with polyvinyl acetate over oil and chalk pastel. This technique blurred the lines and highlighted the texture of the canvas giving the works a shroud-like quality that demonstrated the artist's interest in early religious portraiture. This work is probably a portrait of St. Sebastian, identified by the inclusion of the arrows. 'As a child I was fascinated by the grandeur of the Church and by the stories of tortured saints my grandmother used to tell me.' (E. Mullins, Souza, 1962, p. 55). St Sebastian was a subject Souza chose to depict throughout his career as it allowed Souza to explore the theme of religious suffering that was so central to his work. Souza's portraits of the saint often bore a striking resemblance to the artist, the arrow wounds represented Souza's pockmarked skin following a bout of smallpox as a child. 

Throughout the 1960s, Souza’s depiction of heads became tirelessly experimental. He devoted sketchbooks dedicated to the same head. Some heads were heavily swollen with features condensed, while others are covered in eyes and teeth replicated in order to create unnerving distortions. 'Like Picasso he is restlessly inventive, and the subtlety of his art is at times masked by the sheer vigour of his brushwork. Like Picasso, too, his inventions have tended to be thought outrageous, because the imagination that created them was discovering something about the visual world which no one as yet understood, or which everyone has forgotten.' (ibid. p. 40)