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Lot Essay
"His [Maqbool Fida Husain’s] own work of that time celebrates the experience and the sensation of love, while mourning the loss of love that he could already see ahead [...] Husain painted musicians and dancers, horses and bathers, nudes and lovers." (R. Bartholomew and S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1972, p. 41)
The portrayal of the feminine was always an integral part of Husain's oeuvre. While their forms often drew on classical Indian sculpture, they are also defined by Husain's bold line and palette. In this painting of a group of female dancers, one can see the bearing classical Indian sculpture had on Husain's early work, and his clever combination of the disciplines of music, dance, sculpture and painting. Drawing from the Sanskrit philosophical notion of rasa or aesthetic rapture, Husain sought to express each of these artistic forms through the two-dimensional surface of the canvas to afford his viewers a holistic aesthetic experience.
Discussing the classical stance of tribhanga (three bends) in temple sculpture, which is reflected in the female figures in this painting, Husain noted that "in the East the human form is an entirely different structure [...] the way a woman walks in the village there are three breaks [...] from the feet, the hips and the shoulder [...] they move in rhythm, the walk of a European is erect and archaic." (P. Nandy, The Illustrated Weekly of India, December 4-10, 1983, unpaginated)
Speaking about the artist's early female figures, the critic Richard Bartholomew noted, "The drawing is certain and daringly economical. The thick, muscular, exploratory line is broken or interrupted by blocks of bold colour. This line is different from the slender graceful line of the Pahari painters or the revelatory voluptuousness so characteristic of Matisse's drawing. Poise and resplendent colour, emotively used, provide the spectator the key to the prevailing mood." (R. Bartholomew, 'Ten Paintings by M.F. Husain', Thought, 12 April, 1958)
The portrayal of the feminine was always an integral part of Husain's oeuvre. While their forms often drew on classical Indian sculpture, they are also defined by Husain's bold line and palette. In this painting of a group of female dancers, one can see the bearing classical Indian sculpture had on Husain's early work, and his clever combination of the disciplines of music, dance, sculpture and painting. Drawing from the Sanskrit philosophical notion of rasa or aesthetic rapture, Husain sought to express each of these artistic forms through the two-dimensional surface of the canvas to afford his viewers a holistic aesthetic experience.
Discussing the classical stance of tribhanga (three bends) in temple sculpture, which is reflected in the female figures in this painting, Husain noted that "in the East the human form is an entirely different structure [...] the way a woman walks in the village there are three breaks [...] from the feet, the hips and the shoulder [...] they move in rhythm, the walk of a European is erect and archaic." (P. Nandy, The Illustrated Weekly of India, December 4-10, 1983, unpaginated)
Speaking about the artist's early female figures, the critic Richard Bartholomew noted, "The drawing is certain and daringly economical. The thick, muscular, exploratory line is broken or interrupted by blocks of bold colour. This line is different from the slender graceful line of the Pahari painters or the revelatory voluptuousness so characteristic of Matisse's drawing. Poise and resplendent colour, emotively used, provide the spectator the key to the prevailing mood." (R. Bartholomew, 'Ten Paintings by M.F. Husain', Thought, 12 April, 1958)