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35
PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN, NEW DELHI
18
S H RAZA
(1922 ‒ 2016)
Untitled (Benares)
Signed and dated ‘S. H. RAZA 43’ (lower left)
1943
Watercolour on paper
15 x 22 in (38.3 x 56 cm)
Rs 12,00,000 ‒ 18,00,000
$ 17,915 ‒ 26,870
PROVENANCE:
Christie’s, New York, 20 March 2013, lot 15
The present lot belongs to this nascent phase during the
1940s when Raza painted watercolours of pilgrimage sites
such as Benaras during his travels. His work attracted the
attention of the influential critic Rudy von Leyden. “Even at
this early stage, what distinguished Raza’s work from that of
most other landscape painters was its non‒representational
quality, with the colour tonalities creating an innate rhythm...
As Leyden observes, ‘This was the period of the student,
the learner who explored not only the unending aspects of
nature but with equal curiosity into the infinite facets and
possibilities of his medium, the manners of his painting and
the unfolding powers of his own imagination.” (Yashodhara
Dalmia,
The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives
,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 146‒147)
View of old city of Benaras
PROPERTY FROM THE WEBER FAMILY COLLECTION, SWITZERLAND
17
S H RAZA
(1922 ‒ 2016)
Untitled (City Temple)
Signed and dated 'S. H. RAZA. 49.' (lower left)
1949
Watercolour on paper
13 x 19.25 in (33.1 x 48.7 cm)
Rs 6,00,000 ‒ 8,00,000
$ 8,960 ‒ 11,945
PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the artist
Emil Weber collection, Basel
Thence by descent
Heinz Weber, Basel and Rosemarie Herbrand‒Weber, Munich