Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces and Museum Quality Series | October 2004

THE MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY SERIES 35 10 Sass BRUNNER [1889-1950/ b . Nagykanzia, Hungary] Amarnath Cave S/d in English l.r. & titled l.l. Oil on canvas, 1940 46.9 x 60.4 cm (18.5 x 23.8 in) Provenance Erstwhile Royal Family of Masuda Rs. 600,000 – 700,000 $ 12,950 – 15,100 £ 7,100 – 8,275 ‘There is straightforward landscape work in different techniques, at times even photographic when the artists’ interest in a record of the place was greater than the necessity of artistic articulation. But then there are those strange, cold and stern panels of her pilgrimage to the ice lingam of Ambernath and of the Kanchenjunga in which time seems to stand still in a second of reverence and devotion. Her large symbolical The famous ice lingam of Amarnath has been in the news recently for melting too early due to environmental neglect, hence leaving pilgrims dissatisfied on Shravan Purnima (for the Chari Mubarak Puja). Nature finds its own way to tell God that its representatives are astray even if they pray. paintings are, inspite of explanations, too personal and too transcendental to transmit their meaning, and without that understanding an artistic appreciation seems impossible.’ – Rudi von Leyden, rpt. in The Times of India December 1942.