Osian's Auction Catalogue Masterpieces and Museum-Quality III | March 2004

121 MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY III 54 S.H. RAZA (b.1922 / Babariya, Madhya Pradesh) The Chapel S/d in Eglish l.r. Oil on canvas, 1957 76.5 x 49.5 cm (30.1 x 19.5 in) This painting has been cleaned by Kayan Marshall Pundole, Mumbai, January 2004 Rs. 3,500,000 – 4,000,000 US$ 77,800 – 88,900 GB£ 42,700 – 48,800 Please refer to colour illustrations of Church & Cross Under Storm [both in oil on canvas, 1957], rpt. in Raza. Bombay: Sadanga Series 1959, which represent works from the same series, style and period as Lot 54 . “…Raza was to work dodggedly, persistently, with great strength and determination, inspired primarily by the formal construction of Cezanne and the passionate exploration of colour by Van Gogh. His medium changed from gouache in tempera to impasto in oil, signifying a major breakthrough with the paint coming into its own. He moved out to the countryside; to Cezanne’s Provence, as a matter of fact, and to the Maritime Alps where the French landscape with its trees, mountains, villages, and churches became his staple diet. In works like Church (1957), the black steeple and charred roofs burn in their intensity against a smouldering orange sky (pl.105). Red Roofs (1959) is probably set in Provence, where the mountains and the dark blue sky ignite the red of the house amidst the flickering lights.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, rpt. in The making of modern India art: The Progressives . OUP 2001; p.151-2.) Please also refer to colour illustration of Elgise , Oil on canvas, 1956 in Plate 105, p.150, rpt. in The Making of Modern India Art: The Progressives . OUP 2001 for work in the same series as Lot 54 . OSIANs S.I.R. ANALYSIS [1992–2003] Present Estimate 5,963.03 Previous Highs 2,598.15 [Ch.NY/17.09.03; Terre Rouge, 1957] 2,543.51 [Sa.com/04.12.03; Colline, 1957] Previous Average 536.78 Auction Average 289.84 Opinion The early oil on canvas works of S.H. Raza completed during the late 1950s are some of the most sought after paintings by the connoisseurs of art (though most of the ‘socialite buyers’ pursue the more recent & fashionable Bindu repetitions with equal financial diligence). A recent transaction of an early 1958 Raza provided a S.I.R. of 4,101.2. “…one enters the domain where colour is energy with innumerable situations and possibilities. It can destroy the image as it can incorporate and radiate from the image. If one can cast aside a lot of persistent sentimentality about art which ultimately time will not permit, one comes logically to look at painting for the energy it contains, the inner life it reveals, through the vision of an image which can be a face, a figure or any other aspect of nature.” (S.H. Raza, rpt. in Raza . Bombay: Sadanga Series 1959; p.19.) “ The gouache techniques in tempera was to give way to impasto in oils. The change of medium and manner (during 1953) were not merely technical but signified a fundamental change of attitude. The scholar, who had measured and calculated, burst through the confines of a limited understanding of colour and space-created-by-colour into a sphere of full realisation. The transformation created such passion that one could best describe this age of Raza as the age of the Lover. This triumphant handling of paint, this living in paint can only be understood as an act of love. His colours take on an entirely new complexion. Brilliant reds and yellows stand out against large looming forces of black and deep Prussian blue. Shapes dissolve in seas of colours which are by no means unorganised and fluid but seem to move and evolve within the space of the painting.” (Rudi von Leyden, rpt. in Raza . Bombay: Sadanga Series 1959; p.19.)