Important Notice

The present lot is a compelling example of S H Raza’s early artistic practice, providing insight into the formative years of his career. In 1943, he moved from Nagpur to Bombay to study art, later enrolling at the Sir J J School of Art in 1947. Throughout the decade, he painted predominantly in watercolours and gouache, mediums that were widely taught in art schools at the time. Two of his works were exhibited at a group show the same year,... The present lot is a compelling example of S H Raza’s early artistic practice, providing insight into the formative years of his career. In 1943, he moved from Nagpur to Bombay to study art, later enrolling at the Sir J J School of Art in 1947. Throughout the decade, he painted predominantly in watercolours and gouache, mediums that were widely taught in art schools at the time. Two of his works were exhibited at a group show the same year, drawing the attention of Rudy von Leyden, an art critic for the Times of India. He observed, “When he came out of his shell at the age of twenty, he was a painter of light, deft, fluid watercolours of landscapes and townscapes.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “Bombay: City of Hope”, Sayed Haider Raza, Noida: HarperCollins, 2021, p. 19)

In 1944, Raza encountered another influential figure, Walter Langhammer, a European artist and patron who had recently moved to Bombay and taken on the role of Art Director at The Times of India. Langhammer allowed Raza access to his studio during the day and offered critical feedback which proved formative to his artistic approach. He encouraged Raza to closely observe the use of colour and forms in both Eastern and Western art, from Kokoschka and Gauguin to Jain and Mughal miniatures. The foundational elements of Raza’s mature paintings were already evident in his early watercolours. He simplifies the forms of the landscape in the present lot and uses colour to achieve what von Leyden described as the “‘constructive’, i.e. the non-illustrative or non-representational quality of colour in painting.” (Ashok Vajpyei, “Beginnings”, A Life in Art: Raza, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 40) Raza himself once remarked, “The idea of nature, the impact of nature from childhood, was an important element. But in Bombay I realised that a painter should know his language as a writer should know the vocabulary, the grammar, the meaning of words and has to have a mastery of them in verbal expression. A painter should know what colour is; he should know the organization of colours, their values and how to render a theme on paper, or on canvas.” (Dalmia, p. 20)

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