Important Notice

In 1950, Raza moved to France with fellow Bombay Progressive Akbar Padamsee, and began studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris the following year. This move brought about a change in both his medium and subject matter. Beginning to paint with oils instead of gouache and tempera, "He moved out to the countryside; to Cezanne's Provence... and to the Maritime Alps where the French landscape with its trees, mountains, villages, and churches... In 1950, Raza moved to France with fellow Bombay Progressive Akbar Padamsee, and began studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris the following year. This move brought about a change in both his medium and subject matter. Beginning to paint with oils instead of gouache and tempera, "He moved out to the countryside; to Cezanne's Provence... and to the Maritime Alps where the French landscape with its trees, mountains, villages, and churches became his staple diet." (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 151, 152) As suggested by Cartier-Bresson, Raza had embarked on a search for structure in his art.

The present lot was painted in 1956, the same year in which the artist won France's renowned Prix de la Critique award. It displays the contours and construction of one of the many hamlets in the French countryside that Raza came across on his travels through rural France. Many of Raza's works during this time were characterised by bright colour palettes. With its houses and churches almost toppling over each other on the hillside, this canvas also foreshadows subsequent developments in the artist's oeuvre, where colour and mood began to edge structure out of the frame.

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