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PROPERTY FROM AN EMINENT PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW DELHI
22
F N SOUZA
(1924 ‒ 2002)
Flowers
Signed and dated ‘Souza 61’ (upper left); inscribed and dated
‘FLOWERS / F N SOUZA / 1961’ (on the reverse)
Oil on board
23.75 x 30 in (60.6 x 76.2 cm)
Rs 60,00,000 ‒ 80,00,000
$ 89,555 ‒ 119,405
PROVENANCE:
Estate of Francis Newton Souza
Christie’s, London, 9 June 2010, lot 6
The present lot, titled
Flowers
,
is an unusual subject choice for Souza. In a
thematic oeuvre dominated by still‒lifes composed of liturgical objects,
Souza painted only a few still‒lifes of flowers in vases, varying form and
style with each painting. Some of these works, including the present lot,
were academically informed paintings which experimented with colour
and composition, and were a rare departure from Souza’s otherwise
scathing portrayals of humanity. In the present lot, he explores the
stylistic and formal possibilities of a theme often explored by European
still‒life painters, and by some of his contemporaries including K H Ara.
And yet, Souza imbues the subject with a distinctly sinister, menacing
aura, with the use of heavy black, red and brown impasto contained
within thick, black outlines.
Reproduced from F N Souza,
Words and Lines
,
London: Villiers Publications Ltd., 1959, p. 29