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Lot 7

 

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Abdur Rahman Chughtai is one of the most distinguished modern Pakistani artists of the 20th century, known for his distinctive painting style that was influenced by Indian miniature paintings, Art Nouveau, and Islamic art traditions. Born in Lahore in 1897, he was descended from a family of craftsmen and architects. After completing his education at the Railway Technical School, Lahore, in 1911, Chughtai joined the Mayo School of Art, where he... Abdur Rahman Chughtai is one of the most distinguished modern Pakistani artists of the 20th century, known for his distinctive painting style that was influenced by Indian miniature paintings, Art Nouveau, and Islamic art traditions. Born in Lahore in 1897, he was descended from a family of craftsmen and architects. After completing his education at the Railway Technical School, Lahore, in 1911, Chughtai joined the Mayo School of Art, where he later became head instructor in chromolithography.

While at the Mayo School, Chughtai studied under Vice Principal Samarendranath Gupta, who was a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of the influential Bengal School of painting. This particular school of art shaped Chughtai’s own art with his first painting in a revivalist “oriental” style appearing in the Modern Review in 1916. This influence is evident in aspects of the artist’s work-seen in the present lot-such as his use of watercolour, delicately rendered subjects, and his rich but subtle colour palette. He also gradually fused aspects of Mughal art, miniature paintings, Islamic calligraphy, and Art Nouveau to create a distinctive style that rivalled that of the Bengal School.

Chughtai’s subjects were rooted in the culture of the Subcontinent and drew on both Islamic and Hindu mythology as well as the ideas of Urdu and Persian writers and poets like Mirza Ghalib and Omar Khayyam. His works are often dominated by female figures and feature women in different roles: daughters, princesses, courtesans, goddesses, or women of the court. The subject of the present lot is likely a lady of nobility. In the background is a wall faintly decorated with exquisite floral patterns reminiscent of Mughal motifs. The artist exhibits not only a keen eye for detail but also restraint, never allowing these decorative flourishes to distract the eye from the figure. The work is also testament to Chughtai’s excellent draughtsmanship. Remarks art critic G Venkatachalam, “...Chughtai brings to his art the delicacy of line and the fine finish of Indo-Persian art. He expresses himself clearly and spontaneously and all his pictures have an air of radiant simplicity about them.” (G Venkatachalam, “M. A. Rahman Chughtai,” Contemporary Indian Painters, Bombay: Nalanda Publications, 1949, accessed via Critical Collective, online)

Chughtai was a prolific painter and also produced three books of his own work. The Muraqqai-i-Chughtai (1928), an illustrated edition of Mirza Ghalib’s Urdu poetry, with a foreword by Muhammad Iqbal, is widely considered the most important work of his career. Following the Partition and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he became known as Pakistan’s national artist. Today his works can be found in several important public and private collections around the globe.

FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF BEGUM AMINA MAJEED MALIK

The present lot was formerly part of the private collection of eminent Pakistani educationist Begum Amina Majeed Malik. Born in Lahore in 1913, she completed her BT (the equivalent of a present-day B.Ed) from Aligarh and earned an MA in philosophy from the University of Bombay in 1939. Shortly after, she married Colonel Majeed Malik who was a commissioned officer of the British Army at the time. Begum Malik taught in Delhi, Bombay, and Aligarh before the Partition, after which she and her husband moved to a newly formed Pakistan. Well-versed in Urdu, Persian, and English, she served as a consultant to the Ministry of Education for two years from 1952 where she supervised curriculum development and translated several books from Urdu to English. She established the PECHS Girls’ School and PECHS College in 1955 in service of the education of girls, a cause she devoted the rest of her life to. The latter was renamed the Begum Amina Majeed Malik (BAMM) PECHS Government College for Women in her honour in 2003.

Begum Malik immersed herself in a rich artistic and intellectual environment. She was a patron of the arts and supported many cultural bodies, including the Idara-i-Yaadgar-i-Ghalib of which she was the founding president. Besides being a war veteran, her husband Majeed Malik was also a poet and writer. The couple developed close friendships with artist Abdur Rahman Chughtai and revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who would frequent their home in Pakistan. Majeed was invited to edit Karavan, an Urdu magazine dedicated to art started by Chughtai which featured contributions from Faiz and Allama Iqbal. Begum Malik passed away in Karachi in 2004.

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