Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities and Modern and Contemporary Fine Arts | June 2015

Krishen Khanna b. 5 July 1925 Untitled Oil on canvas, nd (Mid 1950s) Signed in English ‘K. Khanna’ l.r. 15.8 x 12.1 in (40.2 x 30.8 cm) Provenance Collection of a Gentleman, Mumbai; formerly from the Collection of Manvendra Singh Gohil of the Rajpipla Royal Family ` 300,000 – 450,000 US$ 5,000 – 7,500 GBP 3000 – 4500 Full image on p. 144 J. Swaminathan 21 June 1928 – 25 April 1994 Mountain, Bird & Tree Series Oil on canvas, 1988 S/d in Devanagari ‘J Swaminathan 88’ on verso 38.9 x 43.7 in (98.8 x 111.0 cm) Provenance Collection of a Gentleman, Mumbai; formerly from the Collection of Manvendra Singh Gohil of the Rajpipla Royal Family ` 6,000,000 – 9,000,000 US$ 100,000 – 150,000 GBP 60,000 – 90,000 Full image on pp. 146-147 M.F. Husain 17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011 Sitar Player Oil on canvas, 1976 S/d in English ‘Husain 76’ t.r. 48.7 x 47.2 in (123.8 x 119.8 cm) Provenance Collection of a Gentleman, Mumbai; formerly from the Collection of Manvendra Singh Gohil of the Rajpipla Royal Family ` 6,000,000 – 9,000,000 US$ 100,000 – 150,000 GBP 60,000 – 90,000 Full image on p. 145 Properties (Lots 21-25 & Lots 63-65) formerly from the Collection of Manvendra Singh Gohil of the Rajpipla Royal Family & the Lakshya Trust Part II 65 64 63 ‘He expresses a spiritual sentiment about the unrealised universe, but through the mediating mirror of nature. These are in a sense landscape pictures. There are zigzag mountains, delicate, transparent and lofty; symbols of ascent and of eternity. There is usually a piece of the mountains, a free-floating rock, hung against the sky, and with its perfect poise, defying the gravity of the earth. Sometimes this aerial rock is the perch of a bird or its floating vehicle.There is always an exquisite bird, or pairs and sets of birds: swallows, cuckoos, parrots, koels and peacocks.There is usually a tree or a flowering bush at the foot of the mountain or the crest of a hill: a virginal plant in the first flush of spring; a fragile tulsi, a cherry blossom or a gulmohar. A tree sprung from the air, as it were, all fragrance and colour, its roots barely anchored to the soil its branches filigreed against the sky. The space (akasa) of the picture radiates light.’ – Geeta Kapur rpt. In Contemporary Indian Artists. Vikas Publishing House 1978; p201. 143 Indian Antiquities, Modern & Contemporary Fine Arts