Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915)

Husain has had a fascination with horses from an early age. As a young boy his grandfather used to take him to the local farrier in Indore where he saw horses of all types. In the current work it is unclear who the figures along the left edge of the work represent but in such an early example of the depiction of horses in Husain's work it is possible that the tall bearded man is his grandfather who had such a powerful impact on the early part of his life. Husain has returned to the subject of the horse repeatedly in his work, his horses are wild, symbols of immense raw power, the raised hooves and heaving flank all suggestive of their pent up primal energy.

'The horses are rampant or galloping; the manes, the fury, the working buttocks the prancing legs, and the strong neighing heads with dilated nostrils are blocks of color which are vivid or tactile or are propelled in their significant progression by strokes of the brush or sweeps of the palette knife. The activity depicted is transformed in the activity of paint.'  (E Alkazi, M. F. Husain The Modern Artist and Tradition, New Delhi, 1978, p. 3).

In classical Indian art and myth seven horses draw the chariot of the sun god Surya, they are symbols of the sun itself, of time and of knowledge.  In certain Puranic myths horses are said to have emerged from the sea and from the ether and during the pre-vedic period horse sacrifice was widely prevalent. In the Indian epics and religious treatises there are illuminating references to the horse sacrifice. White and black horses were alternately favored, and it is evident that the practice was not only associated with solar worship, but was also intended to secure fertility. For Husain too they are symbols of life sustaining forces. Riderless, his horses look out across timeless landscapes or back towards an unseen audience.  The images are metaphorical, at times powerfully erotic or sublimely tragic.