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S H Raza
Image courtesy of Ruxana Pathan
Facing page: Bombay Art Society's exhibition
catalogue announcing S H Raza as the winner of
the gold medal for the present lot.
Reproduced from
Diamond Jubilee Exhibition
, Bombay:
Bombay Art Society, December 1948, pp. 9, 10, 17
In the late 1930s, many European companies set up a base
for trade in India, including a group of Swiss automotive
companies who had their headquarters in Bombay. Among
the company representatives that arrived in the city was
Emil Weber, who worked with the famous Schweizerische
Lokomotiv‒ und Maschinenfabrik (Swiss Locomotive
and Machine Works) manufacturing company, or SLM
as they were popularly known. A global company for
producing steam and electric locomotive engines, SLM
built locomotives for the Indian Railways back in 1928 and
the years that followed.
As most of these Swiss companies originated from the town
of Winterthur near Zürich, the company men in Bombay
were very well acquainted with each other. During World
War I, they were advised not to travel back home and they
subsequently settled down in the Bandra and Cumbala
Hill neighbourhoods of Bombay, forming a “Swiss Colony.”
One of these representatives, Mr. Scherrer from Volkart
Brothers, made acquaintance with Kekoo Gandhy, who
owned Chemould Frames, a picture frame manufacturing
company. Through his business, Gandhy had come to
know the young generation of artists in Bombay then,
including Raza. Gandhy, who went on to become one
of India’s foremost art patrons, exhibited paintings in his
showroom window while promoting them to prospective
clients such as Mr. Weber.
EMIL WEBER
The family recalls that Mr. Weber became a patron of Raza’s
early works, even suggesting that the artist paint the view
of the Girgaum Chowpatty Bay seen in lot 15, which won
the Gold medal in the 1948 Bombay Art Society exhibition.
He later went to great lengths to acquire the painting even
though it was not listed for sale. Mr. Weber eventually left
India in 1949 and returned to Switzerland. He remained an
avid collector of Raza’s paintings for decades to come, even
visiting Raza in Paris in 1982, the same year in which he
acquired lot 17 from an exhibition in Bern.
Lots 15, 16 and 17 are fromMr. Weber’s personal collection.
Emil Weber and friend in front of Gateway of India, circa 1935
Image courtesy of the Weber family