Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915)

The main influences on Husain’s early works are the rural Indian landscape, the classical arts of India and the contemporary culture of urban India.  Husain’s paintings throughout his career reflect an ongoing dialogue between the artist and these influences.  The strength of Husain’s vision is that he can blend such divergent stimuli into coherent and immediately tangible forms that are neither cerebral nor superficial.

Between 1960 and 1965 Husain created several paintings of Rajasthan, the region was also the inspiration for his first film Through the Eyes of a Painter.  ‘It’ll be shot in three cities of Rajasthan. It’ll be about the bathing nymphets of Bundi lake, the brave Rajput warriors of Chittor Fort, the golden by lanes and the caravanserais of Jaiselmer,’ (M. F. Husain with Khalid Mohammed, Where Art Thou, Mumbai, 2002, p. 104). The current work from a similar period is also clearly influenced by the landscape, forts and walled cities of Rajasthan and depicts the arrival of a maiden in a horse drawn carriage.     

'There is an exalted dignity about the people who inhabit Husain’s canvasses.  Peasants, workers, craftsmen, women toiling in fields, or huddled together in conversation all have self contained poise, the stoic patience and grace associated with the common people...he captures in their postures and lineaments their distinctive ethos and culture...not by physiognomy or costume alone are they differentiated, but in their total bearing and presence.' (E. Alkazi, M. F. Husain The Modern Artist and Tradition, New Delhi, p.22).