Important Notice

Hampstead Landscape depicts Francis Newton Souza's immediate North London surroundings, where he lived and worked from the mid-1950s until 1967. The year in which this work was made was a pivotal one for Souza: he had revisited India and had stabilised after years marked by upheavals and uncertainty. This impacted his idiom and style. Landscapes were a common theme in Souza's paintings during this period, and he often used the views and... Hampstead Landscape depicts Francis Newton Souza's immediate North London surroundings, where he lived and worked from the mid-1950s until 1967. The year in which this work was made was a pivotal one for Souza: he had revisited India and had stabilised after years marked by upheavals and uncertainty. This impacted his idiom and style. Landscapes were a common theme in Souza's paintings during this period, and he often used the views and perspectives obtained from the heights of Hampstead Heath as inspiration for these works. In contrast to his earlier works, Souza's landscapes of the early 1960s become progressively more expressive and gestural, giving more of an abstract impression of the location, rather than a literal depiction. While black continued to remain present in his works, Souza's use of two primary colours affords Hampstead Landscape a strong graphic quality that instantly engages the viewer. Here, the paint has been applied using a palette knife, creating areas of thick impasto, and layers of smooth textures.

The sharp network of streets, angular buildings and bare trees are arranged in clusters around the painting, creating frantic areas amidst the large vibrant swathes of colour. These violent brushstrokes suggest an intensity which is heightened to a crescendo by the use of large flat areas of red in the composition. This sits in stark contrast to the calming effect of the green seen at the left, and the dark voids created by areas of black paint.

This dramatic combination provides the viewer with a powerful, expressive and almost elemental depiction of one of Souza's most well-known, and acclaimed, subjects.

Jagdish Swaminathan describes Souza's cityscapes as "singularly devoid of emotive inhibitions". They are the "congealed visions of a mysterious world. Whether standing solidly in enamelled petrifaction or delineated in thin colour with calligraphic intonations, the cityscapes of Souza are purely plastic entities with no reference to memories or mirrors." (J. Swaminathan, Souza's Exhibition, Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi, 1995, pg. 31)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site