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

THE MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY SERIES 57 29 M.F. HUSAIN [ b .1915, Pandharpur, Maharashtra] Rani Signed in Devanagari t.r. and S/d & titled on verso Oil on canvas, 1962 103.0 x 76.5 cm (40.0 x 30.0 in) Rs. 4,000,000 – 5,000,000 $ 86,400 – 108,000 £ 47,325 – 59,175 ‘Husain paints women because these are not heroic times and tenderly joyous or suffering, women remain vital…They come from a territory of the mind, at once idea and living reality. Their validity is in the soft and warm curve of their flesh, in the look in their eyes, in the separateness that marks them essentially human. They come from a territory, however, recognizably Indian in its sensibility and symbolization: contemplative, brooding, often heavy with the mystery of life.’ – Shiv S. Kapur, rpt. in Husain LKA 1961. Husain & his Many Forms of Woman, 1950-90s