George Keyt

Acquired by John Russell in Sri Lanka circa late 1960s

Acquired from the estate of the above, 2024

John Russell (1926-2012) was an accomplished American diplomat with a distinguished career that took him to Chad, Germany, Martinique, Venezuela and more. A lifelong art lover who founded the International Multicultural Fine Arts Exchange Foundation in Washington D.C., upon retiring from a thirty-six year career with the State Department, Russell acquired the current lot while serving as a Public Affairs Officer in Colombo, Sri Lanka during the late 1960s.

'[Keyt] employed all his resources, springing line, rhythmical form and glowing colour, to imbue his subjects with innocent sensuality and poetic charm.' (W. G. Archer, India and Modern Indian Art, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1959, p. 135)

In 1946, Keyt left his native country for India, which was to become his spiritual home. He was greatly influenced by the country’s landscape and traditions, as well as the iconography and mythology of both the Hindu and Buddhist religions. These traditional sources of inspiration were then modernized by Keyt through his cubist forms and fauvist palette. In terms of subject, he is most renowned for sensuous portrayals of the female form, as seen in the current work from 1967.

Untitled (Three Women) highlights Keyt’s distinctive use of shadow and the creative spatial relationships between his figures. Here, three women are shown in an arrangement that both hides and reveals them. The central figure’s body positioning resembles that of a yakshi, a female spirit that represents fertility and prosperity portrayed in a tribhanga pose, where the body is exaggeratedly bent at the hip. The other two women’s profiles are conjoined and their almond-shaped eyes and pensive looks suggest a moment of pause. In the lower right corner, orange leaves decorate the scene and bring the element of the natural beauty of Sri Lanka. There is a tender simplicity to the arrangement, a quality which runs throughout the work of this distinguished artist.

The current lot is one of few paintings on board to ever come to market. Sotheby’s is excited to bring this work of a rare medium and graceful composition to auction for the first time, having come from a collection of a distinguished former diplomat stationed in Sri Lanka in the late 1960s.