M F Husain considered the human figure central to his depiction of the diverse realities of India. It became, in the words of critic Shiv Kapur, “the vehicle for his exploration of the nature and drama of reality.” (Shiv Kapur, Husain, Richard Bartholomew and Shiv Kapur, New York, 1971, p. 36) The figures he painted at the beginning of his career, between 1948 and 1952, were considerably influenced by his engagement with rural India.... M F Husain considered the human figure central to his depiction of the diverse realities of India. It became, in the words of critic Shiv Kapur, “the vehicle for his exploration of the nature and drama of reality.” (Shiv Kapur, Husain, Richard Bartholomew and Shiv Kapur, New York, 1971, p. 36) The figures he painted at the beginning of his career, between 1948 and 1952, were considerably influenced by his engagement with rural India. However, they underwent a gradual transformation after a visit to Europe in 1953 exposed him to the works of Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, and Paul Klee and attuned him to the use of symbolism and metaphor in art. As critic Geeta Kapur observes, “The figures of the paintings became more than characters; they were psychological archetypes, enacting their ever?lasting realisations upon the picture plane. The entire attitude was neither dramatic nor understated: it was simple and complete. These paintings were the result of his deep vulnerability to certain human situations. Earlier, this has arisen from his relationship with the external environment and the consequent paintings had been spontaneous and extroverted. Now there was an introverted, almost intellectual confrontation.” (Geeta Kapur, “Husain”, Dr Mulk Raj Anand ed., Husain: Sadanga Series by Vakils, Bombay: Vakils,1968, p. 5)

The present lot from 1964 appears to belong stylistically to a series of paintings that Husain made between 1959 and 1968. These works centre a female figure, often accompanied by symbolic elements such as a lamp and a taveez or sacred letter, and “describe a sort of ‘rites of passage’, of the journey from puberty to womanhood, from innocence to experience.” (Ebrahim Alkazi, M F Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition, New Delhi: Art Heritage, 1978, p. 6) In this composition, two figures hold a lamp between them. One woman wears a taveez and gently shields the flame, suggesting an intimate ritual of the passing on of sacred knowledge. The lamp recurs in several of Husain’s works, including in his seminal 1956 painting, Between the Spider and the Lamp, a preparatory sketch of which can be viewed in lot 39. The artist may have derived this motif from childhood memories of his grandfather Abdul Husain, a tinsmith who made lamps for a living. Kapur explains, “The lamp is a frequent symbol in Husain’s work, often in a phallic connotation. It also appears as an agent of knowledge and disturbance in the drama of the daemonic…” (Kapur, 1971, p. 43)

While Husain is widely known for using bright colours, here he favours an earthier muted palette that evokes associations with rural life. He renders the woman on the left with deliberate, textured lines, a nuanced palette, and a rigidity that lends her form the monumentality of classical Indian sculpture. In contrast, the second figure appears more ephemeral and dissolves into the flat background which offers little by way of geographical context. This ambiguity gives the painting an overall air of mystery and timelessness. Reflecting on the ascetic quality of many of Husain’s female figures, art historian Yashodhara Dalmia writes, “Husain’s women are always enshrouded in an invisible veil, the simplicity of their form encountered by their inaccessibility. They could well be women from his own childhood in a Muslim household, where the feminine presence alternates between the secretive and the visible.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Metaphor for Modernity ? Maqbool Fida Husain”, The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 111) The featureless form fading into the background could also reference Husain’s elusive memory of his mother Zainab who died before he was a year old.

In exploring the complexities of human identity, Geeta Kapur notes how Husain’s figures can often paradoxically appear both intimate and aloof. She remarks, “Husain’s figures are arranged in the form of highlighted vignettes out of a distant tableau because the form of a tableau provides an enclave within reality in which the figures can work out different permutations of their relationship. Most of his figures are like actors and most of his paintings have a staged quality, whether the encounter is mysterious…or self? conscious... Relationships struck between the figures are at one level intimate, at another level detached; intimate, because there is a sense of community between them; detached, in the way they interact, cutting down all excessive emotion by a mute gesture of abeyance.” (Geeta Kapur, “Maqbool Fida Husain: Folklore and Fiesta”, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1978, pp. 131?132)

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