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Lot Essay
“Souza’s cityscapes are the congealed visions of a mysterious world. Whether standing solidly in enameled petrification or delineated in thin colour with calligraphic intonations, the cityscapes of Souza are purely plastic entities with no reference to memories or mirrors.” (J. Swaminathan, ‘Souza's Exhibition’, Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi, 1995, p. 31)
This 1964 landscape by Francis Newton Souza oscillates between the lyrical and the malevolent. The two bare trees in the foreground suggest that it is a winter scene, while the undulating row of angular houses with pointed roofs behind them offers the otherwise austere composition a sense of depth and perspective. The grim structures also recall the Catholic architecture which informed so much of Souza’s work in this genre, and the neighbourhoods of Belsize Park and Hampstead Heath in North London, where he lived at the time. Although the artist’s almost monochromatic palette heightens the gloomy atmosphere of this landscape, it also emphasises Souza’s confidence as an artist and his mastery of line and form.
This 1964 landscape by Francis Newton Souza oscillates between the lyrical and the malevolent. The two bare trees in the foreground suggest that it is a winter scene, while the undulating row of angular houses with pointed roofs behind them offers the otherwise austere composition a sense of depth and perspective. The grim structures also recall the Catholic architecture which informed so much of Souza’s work in this genre, and the neighbourhoods of Belsize Park and Hampstead Heath in North London, where he lived at the time. Although the artist’s almost monochromatic palette heightens the gloomy atmosphere of this landscape, it also emphasises Souza’s confidence as an artist and his mastery of line and form.