Jehangir Sabavala (1922-2011)

Christie's London, 16 October 1995, lot 19

R. Hoskote, 'A Crystalline Alchemy', The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd., Bombay, 2005, illustration p. 146

This work is in good condition, as viewed. The colors are richer and deeper than in the catalogue illustration.
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Jehangir Sabavala developed his own unique visual vocabulary that evolved from his training at Mumbai's Sir J. J. School of Art, the Heatherley School of Fine Art, London, the Academie Andre Lhote, the Académie Julianand the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. He then returned to India in the late 1950s and combined his formal technical skills with inspiration drawn from Indian culture.

Over the decades, there were notable shifts in the style of Sabavala’s paintings. From the figurative works of the 1950s to the semi-Cubist abstractions of the 1960s and the focus on spaciousness during the 1970s, Sabavala’s paintings then began to emphasize the drama and magnificence of nature. During a 1993 exhibition of his works, Vedantist Ananda Wood noted that the five elements of the natural world: earth, water, fire, air and sky figure very prominently in his paintings. His attention to the luminosity of colour, the varied effects of multiple tones and the rendering of spatial dimensions through the gradation of light are all strong features in his works. The sky in particular, began to dominate the subject matter of Sabavala’s canvases from this time period.

One summer, Sabavala visited the Khali estate in the Kumaon region of the Himalayan foothills. Upon returning home, he enthusiastically wrote of the beauty of the Kumaon region. Country walks filled with richly scented air and magical meadows all left an indelible impression upon him. Painted in 1993, Kumaon Skies is an homage to this lovely province. Commenting on this painting, Ranjit Hoskote notes, “A hint of Constable lingers in the celebration of the felicity of natural forms that is ‘Kumaon Skies’. The artist relishes the play of opposites, the nebulous against the geometric, scumbled passages of cloud and the spearing trajectories of birds. Modelling the overhanging cloud-head, the tree-line and the massif in cerulean, cobalt, damson and amethyst touched with citron yellow, Sabavala also takes an unabashed delight in colour.” (R. Hoskote, 'A Crystalline Alchemy', The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd., Bombay, 2005, p. 146) Painted from an aerial perspective, this work offers the viewer a stunning glimpse of Kumaon from the artist’s vantage point.