GEORGE KEYT | Nayika (Vasantha Raga)

Acquired directly from the artist by Martin Russell Esq.
Sotheby's London, 14 October 2003, lot 103
Sotheby's London, 18 September 2013, lot 41

R. Candappa et al., George Keyt, A Centennial Anthology, George Keyt Foundation, Colombo, 2001, illustration p. 75

This painting has been cleaned, consolidated and relined. Small irregularities and pinhole sized losses to the paint are visible upon very close inspection. Faint craquelure is present in areas of thicker paint which is again only apparent upon close scrutiny. UV Light: Spots of retouching and consolidation are visible throughout and fluoresce under ultraviolet light. This painting is currently in good and stable condition, as viewed.
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Nayika (Vasantha Raga) is a wonderful example of Keyt’s mastery; all the fundamentals of his genius for colour, line and form can be seen here. This work was created in 1943, a seminal year in Keyt’s oeuvre. 1943 was the year when the very first professional modernist group of artists, the Colombo ‘43 Group, was formed, pre-dating the Bombay Progressives by five years. Led by Lionel Wendt, the key members of the group included George Keyt, Ivan Peries, Harold Peiris, Justin Daraniyagala, Aubrey Collette, Geoffrey Beling, Richard Gabriel, George Claessen, L. T. P. Manjusri Thero and Swanee Jayawardene. The pluralistic approaches of this group- with the adoption of modern art movements of the West into their own local idiom radicalised their art practice. This was the time when Keyt was living in Amunugama and working on the large murals in the Buddhist temple of the Gotami Vihara- a landmark of his career. He is known to have created a series of works at this time as aesthetic relaxation and this work could possibly be one of the series. One witnesses the artist’s coming into his own unique style and in tandem with the ideals of the '43 Group - an amalgam of South Asian aesthetic and literary tradition, (where the Nayika embodies the adored woman or mistress in Hindu Erotica), the allure of the Kandyan Hills in all their abundance and the European method of paint application.


Collection of Martin Russell Esq. 

Martin Russell is unanimously credited as the foremost patron of Sri Lankan cubism whose tireless efforts towards the propagation of the art form is responsible for its astounding reception and popularity as it stands today. 

Russell was born in to a wealthy business family in England. From his early youth, he was exposed to the visuals arts by his mother, who was a collector of modern art in her own right. In 1937 she is known to have sat for a portrait by Henri Matisse.

Russell was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. In 1940, he was appointed as the private secretary to Duff Cooper, then Minister of Information. He accompanied Cooper to Singapore where they were responsible for reporting on the coordination of the numerous British Government departments in the Far East. Subsequently he 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 inspired by the Impressionist and post- Impressionist artists who founded the '43 Group in Ceylon. This collective was a school of modern mid-20th-century painting in Sri Lanka, whose principal contribution was the absorption and adaptation of the modern movement in Europe, and their application of this to their contemporary Sri Lankan experience. One of these artists was of course George Keyt, whom he met at the opening of the inaugural exhibition of the ’43 Group in November 1943:

“At the time I did not quite understand Keyt’s work. Because it was so non-European, but another member of the ‘43 Group, George Classen… pointed out to me that Keyt’s work had a ‘poetic’ quality. The word ‘poetic’ used by Classen has been embedded in my memory since. I bought all the Keyts in the show, except one…” (Y. Dalmia, ‘Martin’s Journey,’ Buddha to Krishna: Life and Times of George Keyt, Routledge, London and New York, 2017, p. 124)

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 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.

Russell was more than just a collector. A man of great intellect, in his time in Sri Lanka and subsequently India, he gained extensive knowledge about Hindu Iconography. On the request of Dr. Mulk Raj Anand, the editor of the Bombay art magazine Marg, Russell wrote a book on Keyt who was at the time also living in Bombay.  This was released in 1950 and to-date remains the seminal publication on the artist.

In 1953, Russell returned to England and became an investment banker. His love for Sri Lankan art however continued and he sought to promote it in Europe. He was instrumental in organising many exhibitions in London, Oxford, Cambridge and Paris and served as a benefactor to artists such as George Claessen and Ivan Peries when they visited England. In more recent years, in the new millennium, successful sales from Russell’s collection in international auctions helped to launch widespread interest in 20^th-century Sri Lankan Art.