Maqbool Fida Husain

Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection
Sotheby's New York, Contemporary Paintings from the Chester and Davida Herwitz Charitable Trust, Part II, 3 April 1996, lot 79

D. Herwitz, Husain, Tata Press, Bombay, 1988, illustrated p. 120

D. Nadkarni, Husain The Riding Lightning, Ramdas Bhaktal, Bombay, 1996, illustration p. 66 

There are minor frame abrasions along the edges of both works and small losses to the paint in the upper left quadrant. Two pinholes are present in the canvas near the upper centre and faint stretcher marks are apparent around the periphary. This work is in good overall condition, as viewed.
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Throughout his brilliant artistic career, Husain developed what ultimately came to be regarded as the eponymous subjects of his work – the horse, the woman, mythology, Mother Teresa, to name a few that reoccur in his oeuvre.

The present lot, an elegant rendition of one of Husain’s most iconic subjects - Mother Teresa, exemplifies the power with which the artist imbued the female form. In a single frame Husain is able to portray a multitude of thematic connotations of resilience, vulnerability, strength, stoicism, and compassion. Husain depicts a young, barely clad, faceless, pregnant woman, her arms outstretched beseeching Mother Teresa, depicted here in triplicate in her trademark white and blue bordered sari, to help her out of her misery and care for her and her unborn child.

The venerated figure of Mother Teresa first appeared in the art of Maqbool Fida Husain, soon after she received the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and the Bharat Ratna, India's most prestigious award for national service.  This was the year of 1980, the same as this current work, making it one of the first in this series. Husain recalls his first meeting with Mother Teresa, “So animated, so brisk was her walk… I sat there aghast… looking at her, at her frail body bent at the back. She was in a coarse white cotton sari, worn in the Bengali style. Her face, her wrinkled skin was illuminated by an inner light. The room looked dingy no more. She came and sat opposite me. We hardly spoke… there was so little I wanted to ask.” (Husain quoted by Ila Pal, Beyond the Canvas, New Delhi, 1994). The subject of poverty affected Husain deeply, and what followed this life-changing meeting was a vast body of work depicting faceless women in white and blue saris reaching out to embrace the sick and the vulnerable. “I have tried to capture in my paintings what her presence meant to the destitute and the dying, the light and hope she brought by mere inquiry, by putting her hand over a child abandoned in a street. I did not cry at this encounter. I returned with so much strength and sadness that it continues to ferment within. That is why I try it again and again, after a gap of time, in different medium. To translate that pain in my paintings, I think I will have to die of it” (Husain quoted by Ila Pal, Beyond the Canvas, New Delhi, 1994)