Anjolie Ela Menon

Private Collection, Mumbai

Acquired from the above, 2002

'What strikes first is the bright sheen of the painted surface. As if the starkness of the images needs such clarity and focus that space and objects must be rendered with a primal immediacy. Ever present too is the quest for the beautiful.' (G. Bhatia, Anjolie Ela Menon: By The River, Aicon Art, New York, 2021, p. 9)

After stints at the Sir J.J. School of Art and Delhi University, Anjolie Ela Menon received a scholarship from the French Government to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris from 1959 to 1961. Here, Menon explored the entirety of the Western canon, becoming enamored with Romanesque and Byzantine art – it was during this period that she began to layer oil paint on her canvases in an effort to create a texture that mirrored the veneer of European Baroque paintings.

Menon’s Baroque leanings are evidenced in the present lot, a double portrait of a mother and child. The juxtaposition of the earth tones of the background with the bright yellows and blues in the figures calls to mind artists like Nicolas Poussin, and the glazed surface is further reminiscent of works from this period.

Untitled is a deeply moving piece, as Menon imbues both figures with complex emotion. The child looks straight ahead at the viewer with a vacant stare, while the mother gazes down with an expression that is both compassionate and slightly somber. Together, mother and child evoke a sense of dreamlike sadness that Menon describes: “My nature is somewhat melancholic. I think this is a very Bengali trait.” (Anjolie Ela Menon quoted in I. Murti, ‘Through the Patina’ in I. Dayal (ed.), Anjolie Ela Menon: Paintings in Private Collections, Ravi Dayal Publisher, New Delhi, 1995, p. 14)