Important Notice

After six years of struggle and abject poverty, upon his move from Bombay to London, Souza finally got his break-through solo exhibition at Gallery One in 1955. This exhibition included works which were the satirical and contemporary versions of Saints, Martyrs, Business men and Figures from Mythology. This work as well as The Student (Lot 16) were executed around the same period and capture the isolation and plight of the individual. The... After six years of struggle and abject poverty, upon his move from Bombay to London, Souza finally got his break-through solo exhibition at Gallery One in 1955. This exhibition included works which were the satirical and contemporary versions of Saints, Martyrs, Business men and Figures from Mythology. This work as well as The Student (Lot 16) were executed around the same period and capture the isolation and plight of the individual. The composition of each deliberately encloses the figures in front of the foreboding cityscape, in order to emphasize their disconnection from society, and heighten the emotional impact of the image. In the case of The Student he is forlorn, whilst in the present lot she is deeply contemplative.

Souza’s works have reflected the influence of various schools of art: the folk art of his native Goa, the full-blooded paintings of the Renaissance, the religious fervour of the Catholic Church, the landscapes of the 18th and 19th century Europe and the path-breaking paintings of the moderns. This nude figure’s downcast pose, colouring and her pregnancy relate more specifically to a figure from Western Art History, Bathsheba. A figure from the Old Testament, Bathsheba’s most famous portrayal is by Rembrandt, Bathsheba Bathing 1654, which hangs in the Paris Louvre. In this work Rembrandt shows the moment in which King David sees Bathsheba bathing and entranced, seduces her, after which she falls pregnant. In order to marry Bathsheba and conceal his sin, David sends her husband into battle and orders his generals to abandon him, leaving him to certain death. What drew Picasso, Degas, Manet, Bazille and now Souza to do their own versions of Bathsheba was the moral dilemma faced by the protagonist, her downcast eyes hint at the inner turmoil she is facing.

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