Untitled (Houses)

B. Prabha entered the art world at a time when few Indian women were professionally involved in the art world. Having grown up in the small Indian village of Bela, near Nagpur, her work ranges from the lives of rural women to atmospheric landscapes while she continually explored an array of related subjects alluding to society and identity. In the 1960s she concentrated on oil landscape paintings, which carry her graceful and formal trademark style. In this 1964 painting, the artist creates a moonlight landscape with long and rough brush strokes, which defines movement and accentuates shadows and tones on the canvas. Different shades of blue come together creating a luminous night scene.

As a young artist, Prabha moved to Mumbai and studied at the Sir J.J. School of Art. In her lifetime, she showed work in more than 50 exhibitions in India and abroad. In 1956, she had her first exhibition with her husband, B. Vithal, and won first prize at the Maharashtra State Art Exhibition in 1958.