Important Notice

This vertical composition presents vignettes of rural life, each with a distinct focus. The uppermost panel has a sculptural quality, with faces which are solid and weighty. In comparison, the traditionally garbed and animated man, woman and child in the centre panel are engaged in a form of dramatic storytelling or conversation. Their attire indicates a rural setting. At the bottom of the canvas is a quintessential Indian village scene, with a... This vertical composition presents vignettes of rural life, each with a distinct focus. The uppermost panel has a sculptural quality, with faces which are solid and weighty. In comparison, the traditionally garbed and animated man, woman and child in the centre panel are engaged in a form of dramatic storytelling or conversation. Their attire indicates a rural setting. At the bottom of the canvas is a quintessential Indian village scene, with a tree, water pots and silhouettes of cattle against the sun. Each section is composed of solid colours that add to the rustic character of the figures, all of which are set against a background of rich, brown earthiness.

Rustic, rural scenes dominated Husain's oeuvre in the 1950s. It was during this time that he created seminal works such as Man (1950) and Zameen (1955). In Man, he experimented with unusual forms, lines, shapes and colour, which he then continued to explore over the following decades. In Zameen, Husain juxtaposed montages of village life in a more complex composition. While the very large Zameen is incomparable in scale, the confidently rendered forms and the use of panels for storytelling as a compositional technique, is comparable to that of the present lot.

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