Maqbool Fida Husain (1913 - 2011)

Acquired in Paris in the early 1980s

Small loss of paint in impasto in two areas of yellow, upper center, and in oxen lower left.
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Many of Husain's early paintings depict scenes of rural India and were inspired by his travels around the country. In particular, the theme of the farmer and his family who form the backbone of the Indian nation is an integral part of Husain's visual vocabulary.

Husain was different from his contemporaries —Francis Newton Souza or Sayed Haider Raza —in choosing to remain in India. Even so, he travelled widely throughout the subcontinent, from the Himalayas to Kerala, to experience the landscape and cultures in the different regions of India. Critic Yashodhara Dalmia compares Husain's paintings from this phase of his career with the rural themes of Amrita Sher-Gil, explaining: "Husain drew from the classical, the miniature and folk and attempted to meld it into a language which formulated the present. It allowed him to express a perceived reality which, while being seamless, mythical and vast, was at the same time hurtling towards industrialization and modernization. Husain took Amrita's legacy further toward a more authentic stage. His villagers are not particularly beautiful; but surrounded by their tools, their animals ... they appear more truly alive, secure and rooted in their environment," (Y. Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Delhi, 2001, p. 107).

During this period, the palette of his canvases were imbued with the colours of the Indian countryside. As E. Alkazi concludes ‘Most artists have been attracted at one time or other to the charm and colour of the Indian countryside and drawn inspiration from it. Few have brought to it the poetic lyricism which Husain has.’ (E. Alkazi, M.F. Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition, Art Heritage, New Delhi, 1978, pp. 13-14).