Badri Nath Arya

Acquired from the artist by Ambassador and Mrs. Kenneth Rush, India, early 1960s 
Thence by descent
 
Ambassador Rush (1910 - 1994) was a life-long diplomat, business leader and educator. He served as Ambassador of the United States in France and West Germany. He is credited with playing a major role in the successful negotiation of the ground-breaking Quadrapartite Agreement in 1971 that ended the post-war crisis over Berlin. He was a key White House adviser in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Ambassador  and Mrs. Rush would travel to India annually for business. Mrs. Rush assembled a large collection of contemporary Indian art.

Born in Peshawar in 1936, Badri Nath Arya, or B.N. Arya as he is widely known, settled in Lucknow with his family after Partition. Showing no inclination towards the family business, Arya instead developed an interest in art and photography leading him to acquire a Diploma in Painting and Sculpture from the Lucknow College of Arts and Crafts. Arya’s works depict Indian culture, customs and myths, and are profoundly influenced by the Bengal School of Art. The painter’s use of vibrant color brings his works to life with a startling immediacy, as seen in the current lot, painted in 1958. Here, Arya presents an idyllic waterscape of rural India. This enchanting and charmingly simple scene has been beautifully rendered in glowing color tones, which lend the work a distinctly mythical quality.