Francis Newton Souza

Acquired from Grosvenor Gallery, circa 1960s

Good overall condition. This work has recently been cleaned.
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.

Francis Newton Souza is extolled for his magnificent landscapes, which formed the majority of his works created in the 1950s and 1960s. After his move to England he was awarded a government scholarship and study tour around Italy in 1960 during which he visited numerous  European capitals including Rome, Madrid and Amsterdam. This exposure to the various cityscapes across the continent served as inspiration for his compositions. This painting is executed with a multitude of paint layers, mostly in shades of blue with hints of yellow, green, red and outlined in black. The limited palette emphasizes Souza’s mastery with linear and geometric configuration. Gone were the sentimental and bucolic scenes he painted in India in the early 1940s, ushering in a new era of landscapes that captured the essence of his surroundings with complexity and brilliance. With as much expression and radicalization as his portraits, this architectonic horizon of buildings is painted tightly against each other in a cubist manner. Souza is exploiting every available inch on this canvas to construct his cityscape, forming a series of overlapping and multi-faceted buildings, compressing perspective and forcing the structures to collapse on each other. The dynamic and feathered sky is in constant flux and tension, demonstrating Souza’s gestural application of paint and highlighting the sharp lines and abstraction of the structures below it. George Butcher writing in The Studio in November 1961 called him a ‘figurative action painter.’ (E. Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond Ltd., London, 1962, p. 38) The moniker is very evident in this landscape which was painted three years later.

'Souza’s landscapes seem to be driven by a cataclysmic force, which wreaks havoc. Most of these cityscapes following, at first, a simple rectilinear structure, which later, in the 1960s, gives way to an apocalyptic vision. The tumbling houses in their frenzied movement are also symbolic of all things falling apart, of the very root of things being shaken, of a world of the holocaust and thalidomide babies.' (Y. Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001, p. 93). Despite the apparent angst of these early cityscapes there is also an evident joy in the use of thick oils applied liberally to the canvas or board, with layers of colour built upon one another and then merged together with swift strokes of the brush or knife. Mullins states that Souza has 'succeeded in creating images which are entirely personal, yet recognisable at the same time. They are often distorted to the point of destruction - houses no more than lopsided cubes...but they never threaten to dissolve into formalized abstract shapes. The violence and speed with which they were executed keep these images, however distorted, in touch with the painter's vision of what they really are.' (E. Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond Ltd., London, 1962, p. 37).

Sharp steeples and a cathedral constitute some of the imposing structures visible in this painting. The use of black outlines to separate the buildings also reveals the influence of the stained glass windows in the Roman Catholic churches of Goa as well as the churches that he visited in Europe during his travels. By incorporating the spiritual influences of his childhood within these tightly ordered compositions, Souza has created a body of work where religion and Modernity coexist.