Maqbool Fida Husain (1913 - 2011)

Acquired from the artist by Mrs. Uma Anand, New Delhi

By the early 1950s, Maqbool Fida Husain had begun to focus his attention on the depiction of the rural idyll and its people. This desire to represent a pastoral utopia was in part due to a post-Independence concern with striving for a new national identity. The virtues and values of the rural class were to become the backbone of the new independent nation. Husain’s indigenous peasants with their upright torsos, strong limbs and dark, calloused skin signified the daily grind of the working classes that surrounded him.

"There is an exalted dignity about the people who inhabit Husain's canvases. Peasants, workers, craftsmen, women toiling in fields or huddled together in conversation all have self-contained poise, the stoic patience and grace associated with the common people. He captures their postures and lineaments their distinctive ethos and culture ... not by physiognomy or costume alone are they differentiated, but in their total bearing and presence," (E. Alkazi, M.F. Husain: The Modern Artist and Tradition, New Delhi, 1978, p. 22). This canvas also demonstrates another subject that was to become central to his work, that of the depiction of the woman. ‘Strong angular lines and flatly applied patches of colour are the instrument of the female form. Woman is seen either as a creation of lyric poetry, a sculpturesque and rhythmic figure of dance, or as an agent of fecundity.' (D. Herwitz, Husain, Delhi, 1988, p.46). Here Husain’s woman is of the village, earthy and wise, her large feet and hands indicative of her strength.