Important Notice

A pioneer of Indian modernism, Hebbar combined Indian and Western influences in both his style and the subjects he chose to portray. Early in his career, he renounced the academic realism that he was taught at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai for a more personal idiom that better suited the themes he wanted to explore in his work. Influenced by artists including Amrita Shergil, Paul Gauguin and various schools of Indian miniatures, Hebbar... A pioneer of Indian modernism, Hebbar combined Indian and Western influences in both his style and the subjects he chose to portray. Early in his career, he renounced the academic realism that he was taught at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai for a more personal idiom that better suited the themes he wanted to explore in his work. Influenced by artists including Amrita Shergil, Paul Gauguin and various schools of Indian miniatures, Hebbar painted landscapes inspired by pan-Indian themes. His narratives, however, were localized by specific places he had traveled to, and through scenes he depicted from the everyday life of the common man. Rendered in thick brushstrokes and the strong lines that are evident in this piece, Hebbar approaches his work with “a sustained effort to give expression to personal feeling and reaction.” (From The Times of India, November 1945 in Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 256-7)
In this canvas, the artist evokes a sense of anticipation as the peacock, with its feathers unfurled is at once a symbol of pride, magnificence and fecundity, as it waits for the monsoon rains.

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