Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

63 M.F. Husain 1913-2011 Untitled Oil on canvas, c.1975 Signed in English ’Husain’ t.r. 39.0 x 29.1 in (99.0 x 74.0 cm) Provenance Formerly from the Family Collection of Late Smt. Indira Gandhi INR 5,000,000 – 7,500,000 USD 74,630 – 111,940 Full image on p. 140 64 M.F. Husain 1913-2011 Untitled Oil on canvas, 1976 Signed in Devanagari ‘Husain’ and dated in English ‘76’ t.r. 42.9 x 22.2 in (109.0 x 56.5 cm) Provenance Formerly from the Family Collection of Late Smt. Indira Gandhi INR 5,000,000 – 7,500,000 USD 74,630 – 111,940 Full image on p. 141 65 M.F. Husain 1913-2011 Mother Teresa Series Oil on canvas, 1980 Signed in Devanagari ‘Husain’ and dated in English ‘80’ l.l. 20.1 x 15.0 in (51.0 x 38.0 cm) Provenance Formerly from the Family Collection of Late Smt. Indira Gandhi INR 1,600,000 – 2,400,000 USD 23,880 – 35,820 Full image on p. 143 “Upon the initial image of the Duldul horse, which as a child he had seen in the processions of Muharram, he has superimposed many varieties of horses; the horses from Chinese paintings which he saw during his visit to China in 1952; the big- rumped horses of Paolo Uccello; the horses of Marino Marini with their phallic necks; the shy, dream- horses of Franz Marc. These contrary varieties resolve themselves with Husain into an image of a wild horse, a beautiful noble creature of vast spaces.” – Geeta Kapur, rpt. in Contemporary Indian Artists , Vikas Publishing House, 1978, p. 138. ‘Husain’s horses swept across continents, amalgamating various influences into a composite form. The Duldul horse, which he had seen from his childhood on tazias in Muharram processions, had been modified, first by the Chinese rendering of the horse and then by the plasticity of form in Franz Marc and Mario Marini’s balance between horizontal and vertical lines. Husain’s horses, however, are singularly his own’. YashodharaDalmia. rpt. in The Making of Modern Indian Art The Progressives . New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005; pp. 107-8. “Its Himalayan snow-peaks touching the high Indra- Dhanusha, still the same white robe (or sari) unfolds love on the limping lanes of Calcutta, where at dead of night, an unwanted, almost unborn child crawls in and out of the womb. The burnt browns and charcoal grey skins, with a blob of fading yellow spilled over, keep knocking our senses. They are alive, still loved. In each fold of her sari breathes a revived soul.” – M. F. Husain, rpt. in Husain: Riding the Lightning , Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, 2000, p.147. Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts & Books | 139