Untitled (Mother Teresa)

Maqbool Fida Husain first met Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1979, an encounter that would have a profound impact on the artist and his work for the remainder of his life. The present lot, painted the same year as this fateful meeting, is one of the earliest known depictions of Mother Teresa by the artist. Speaking of Mother Teresa, Husain noted, "I have tried to capture in my paintings what her presence meant to the destitute and the dying, the light and hope she brought by mere inquiry, by putting her hand over a child abandoned in the street... That is why I try it again and again, after a gap of time, in a different medium" (Artist statement, I. Pal, Beyond the Canvas, An Unfinished Portrait of MF Husain, New Delhi, 1994).

Husain's many portraits of Mother Teresa explore notions not only of the saint herself, but also of motherhood in general, relating her figure to those of the Virgin Mary and his own mother as well, who died when he was a young child. Husain’s treatment of the sitter in this composition, both in her posture and his handling of the drape and folds of her habit, are reminiscent of paintings and sculptures of the Pieta from Renaissance Italy.