George Keyt

Collection of Martin Russell

Sotheby’s London, Modern and Contemporary Indian Paintings, One Hundred Years, 8 October 1996, lot 29

Private US Collection

Bonhams London, Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art & South Asian Art, 1 June 2011, lot 7

Acquired from Anne-French Fine Arts, Florida

British-born Martin Russell is unanimously credited as the foremost patron of Sri Lankan cubism. In 1940, he was appointed as the private secretary to Duff Cooper, then Minister of Information. He accompanied him to Singapore where they were responsible for reporting on the coordination of the numerous British Government departments in the Far East. Subsequently, Russell was employed by the British Army in Colombo and Kandy from 1942-1945. It was in 1942 that he met the Ceylonese photographer and critic Lionel Wendt, and was introduced to the '43 Group in Ceylon. 

Having discovered this group of artists, Russell began collecting their works extensively. Later in 1943, Russell was transferred to the Allied Land Forces Headquarters at Kondesalle which was close to Amunugama where George Keyt lived. The two developed a strong lifelong friendship. Eventually Russell bought his own house near the Keyts which he kept for a long time even after his return to England.

One of Sri Lanka’s most venerated 20th century artists, George Keyt was self-taught and only began to paint seriously at the age of 26. A founding member of the celebrated 43 Group in Ceylon, which preceded the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, Keyt suffused his traditional subject matter and iconography with Cubist forms and a Fauvist palette. 

In 1946, Keyt left his native Sri Lanka for India, a place that was to become his spiritual home. Inspired by the landscape and traditions of India, Keyt is recognised for his sensuous depiction of women within interiors, as is the case with the current lot, painted in the same year as the artist's move.

His evident delight in the feminine form was influenced in part, by classical Hindu sculpture. 'The experience of once again living in India, the India to which in spirit he has always belonged, induced him to re-explore his favourite subject... He employed all his resources, springing line, rhythmical form and glowing colour, to imbue his subjects with innocent sensuality and poetic charm.' (W.G. Archer, India and Modern Indian Art, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1959, p. 135) 

While Keyt was inspired by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, his painting was not merely an adoption of Western modernism. 'His distinction has been to assimilate such Western influences, while remaining unmistakably Eastern - a process all the more natural in that Western Art had first assimilated certain Eastern influences,' wrote Sir Herbert Read. (George Keyt: A Centennial Anthology, The George Keyt Foundation, Colombo, 2001, p. x)

This painting is executed with Keyt's distinctive crisp and bold lines, whilst the careful application of paint furnishes the work with a soft touch. Here we see a young woman with a mirror, a favoured motif of the artist. Her body is formed of interlocking lines, infilled with rich, sumptuous colours. The fluidity of her form contrasts the strikingly angular and geometric backdrop.