Osian's Auction Catalogue India The Passionate Detachment | February 2001

SEEDS OF MODERNISM 107 66 PESTONJI BOMANJI (1851 - 1938) Opium Eater S/d in English, l.r. Oil on board, 1908 56.9 x 37.0 cm. (22.4 x 14.6”) Rs. 300,000 - 400,000 $ 6,380 - 8,510 67 A.X. TRINIDADE (1870 - 1935) Woman Signed in English, t.r. Oil on paper, 1934 42.5 x 30.2 cm. (16.7 x 11.9”) Rs. 225,00 - 275,000 $ 4,790 - 5,850 Pestonji Bomanji was one of the first and finest Indian portrait painters from the academic school. As early as the mid 1880s his paintings sold from Rs. 250/- onwards. To put this in perspective, during the early 1950s artists such as MF Husain, KCS Paniker, Sailoz Mookherjea, NS Bendre, Mohan Samant, Biren De, Gopal Ghose were selling their works between Rs. 250 & 750/-. For colour illustration of work from similar series, refer to Partha Mitter’s Art & Nationalism CUP 1994 . Fig VII, between pp 194 & 195.