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The years that Raza spent as an apprentice at the École de Paris deeply enriched the artistic vocabulary that he had begun to develop for himself in India during the 1940s. Employing what he learnt about style and technique as a means rather than an end, the young artist found a unique way in which to communicate his vision of the terrains he painted in the late 1950s. His command over color and medium had become masterful, and as formal... The years that Raza spent as an apprentice at the École de Paris deeply enriched the artistic vocabulary that he had begun to develop for himself in India during the 1940s. Employing what he learnt about style and technique as a means rather than an end, the young artist found a unique way in which to communicate his vision of the terrains he painted in the late 1950s. His command over color and medium had become masterful, and as formal structure receded, these elements took a leading role in Raza’s landscapes of the period.

This work on paper, painted a few years before Raza left to spend a summer teaching at the University of California in Berkeley, offers early evidence of the transformation that was soon to mark his oeuvre. In this portrayal of a lone Indian temple on a densely wooded hillside, Raza uses freer brushstrokes and a more expressive palette to convey the scene and the emotions it inspired in him. Here, the application of paint is not as defined as in his earlier portrayals of the churches and villages that dotted the French countryside. Through its burning orange sky, and sea of autumnal colors tumbling down the slope, this painting tells of new spontaneity and raw energy informing the artist’s creative process – aspects that were nurtured to full fruition during the next phase of his career.

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