- 529
Maqbool Fida Husain
Estimate
60,000 - 90,000 USD
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Description
- Maqbool Fida Husain
- Untitled (Benares Ghats)
- Signed and dated 'Husain / 60' lower right
- Oil on canvas
- 34 x 20 in. (86.2 x 51 cm.)
- Painted in 1960
Provenance
Acquired from a gallery in London circa 1960s
Condition
There is a tiny 1 cm. tear at the very bottom right edge of work which has been possibly consolidated with varnish. Overall, this work is in very good condition, as viewed. Color appears more saturated in print than in reality.
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 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.
Catalogue Note
Benares, the sacred Indian City on the banks of Ganges in North India is where artistic legends have often taken birth, quite like the first trip of Maqbool Fida Husain and Ram Kumar, who in the early 1960s, spent time painting by its ghats. Deeply affected by the temples, mystics and pilgrims that marks the everyday life of Benares (now Varanasi) both Husain and Ram Kumar went on to create multiple works inspired by the rhythms of this ancient city. In the words of Husain, "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…!" (D. Nadkarni, Husain: Riding the Lightning, Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., Bombay, 1996, p. 110)
The Holy city indeed held a special significance for Husain. 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...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." (D. Herwitz, Husain, Tata Steel Publications Co. Ltd., Bombay, 1988, p. 17).
This painting is a mesmerizing representation of the spectacle of the old age rituals on and along the Ganges. With the use of rough black outlines, almost calligraphic brushstrokes and beautiful geometry, Husain depicts the activity in three registers- the banks of the river with stylized temples, houses and steps intersecting each other; the bathers in the second register and the boats in the third. "On the ghats of Banaras his bathers bathe in ancient lava, so thick and gray are the encrustations of his impasto, so acute his sense of the timelessness of the ritual he saw performed on those hoary steps on the river's edge." (R. Bartholomew and S. Kapur, Husain, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1971, p. 41)
The Holy city indeed held a special significance for Husain. 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...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." (D. Herwitz, Husain, Tata Steel Publications Co. Ltd., Bombay, 1988, p. 17).
This painting is a mesmerizing representation of the spectacle of the old age rituals on and along the Ganges. With the use of rough black outlines, almost calligraphic brushstrokes and beautiful geometry, Husain depicts the activity in three registers- the banks of the river with stylized temples, houses and steps intersecting each other; the bathers in the second register and the boats in the third. "On the ghats of Banaras his bathers bathe in ancient lava, so thick and gray are the encrustations of his impasto, so acute his sense of the timelessness of the ritual he saw performed on those hoary steps on the river's edge." (R. Bartholomew and S. Kapur, Husain, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1971, p. 41)