Sayed Haider Raza

Private UK Collection
Sotheby's New York, 19 September 2007, lot 6

Atlanta, Georgia, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Goddess, Lion, Peasant, Priest, March - May, 2011
New York, Queens Museum, After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India 1947/1997, March - September 2015

R. Brown, Goddess, Lion, Peasant, Priest, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, 2010, illustration p. 115

There are pin-sized holes in the upper left, lower left and lower right corners with a small tear in the upper left corner from one of the pin holes, likely inherent. Foxing stains are visible along the upper edge. Minor cracking to pigment in areas of heavy impasto. Minor wear and creasing along the corners is consistent with age. This lot has not been inspected outside its frame. The reds appear more saturated in the print catalog.
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.
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In the mid 1940s, Raza moved from Nagpur to Bombay, where he began his career as an artist. The subjects of his watercolors were landscapes and street scenes captured in a variety of moods, defined by a shifting interplay of light and color. "This work represents Raza’s early paintings in a European landscape idiom shaped by his training at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai. Rather than follow European models, Raza explored the India around him, depicting a temple scene with figures seated together under a tree with a small shrine at its roots. This early watercolor incorporates the dynamism and rich color found in his abstract painting. While he later turned away from watercolor images of rural life, here we get a rare glimpse into his early experiments in the depiction of traditional Indian subjects via a modern idiom." (R. Brown, Goddess, Lion, Peasant, Priest, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, 2010, p. 114)