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

40 F. N. Souza 1924-2002 Human Anatomy Studies (Double-sided) Pencil on paper, 1943 S/d in English ‘Souza 1943’ l.r. and on verso 8.1 x 6.5 in (20.7 x 16.5 cm) Provenance Private New Delhi-based Collection; previously purchased by Delhi-based Gallery from London Gallery representing Souza during the 1960s INR 160,000 – 250,000 USD 2,390 – 3,580 verso “I had gone through the mill in the art schools I attended in India and Europe. Life drawing, antique drawing, perspective, anatomy, the lot. Drawing is the school of hard knocks the artist has to go through before he or she can come into the bright sunlight of colour. Drawing is the armature, the anatomy, the structure. I see drawing as solid even when I easily draw in pure outline. It’s good to remember Euclid: a point has no length or breadth but has a position. A line is made up of a number of points. A number of lines make a plane. A number of planes make a solid. This geometric formula underlines the draughtsmanship of the greatest of artists, including Cezanne, who noted that nature should be viewed as based on a cone, a sphere and a cylinder. Although Cezanne did not mention the cube, he and African sculpture are fundamentals to Cubism. Prothesis and antithesis produce synthesis. Drawing for me is essential in order to build up the structure of my iconography. Drawing is a system from which colours hang.” – F.N. Souza, quoted and reprinted in Kurtha, Aziz. Francis Newton Souza – Bridging Western and Indian Modern Art. Ahmedabad: Mapin, 2006; p.98 “Apart from knowing Perrad (Victor Perrad’s classic book of Anatomy) backwards, I had done Duval, Arthur Thomson, Bridgeman and a dozen other books of anatomy, including Cunningham’s ‘Textbook of Anatomy’ for physicians. I also did some dissection on superficial muscles on cadavers.” – F.N. Souza, quoted and reprinted in Souza in the ‘Forties. New Delhi: Dhoomimal Gallery ExC. 1983; p.5 Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts & Books | 83