Important Notice

In the present lot, Souza depicts the famous scene Bathsheba at her Bath from the Hebrew Bible, which narrates the story of how King David was enamoured by the beauty of the Bathsheba, wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah. After he seduces and impregnates her, David sends Uriah to the battlefront, leading to his death, and leaving the king free to marry Bathsheba. This scene has been the subject of interpretation by many artists over the... In the present lot, Souza depicts the famous scene Bathsheba at her Bath from the Hebrew Bible, which narrates the story of how King David was enamoured by the beauty of the Bathsheba, wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah. After he seduces and impregnates her, David sends Uriah to the battlefront, leading to his death, and leaving the king free to marry Bathsheba. This scene has been the subject of interpretation by many artists over the centuries, but none so famous as Rembrandt's Bathsheba at Her Bath (or Bathsheba with King David's Letter), which he finished painting in 1654 and is currently part of the collection of The Louvre in Paris. While most paintings depict Bathsheba bathing outdoors as David spies on her from a distance, Rembrandt's version offers a powerfully intimate gaze of Bathsheba suffused in soft light against a dark background, allowing her to be the subject of the canvas in a way she had not been depicted before. In Souza's work, he deliberately strips away the sensuality and realism of Rembrandt's work, choosing rather, to portray his subject in stark lines, with minimal detail.

In his formative years, Souza had discovered in classical Indian art, particularly Khajuraho sculptures, "a tradition of erotic art incomparably more sensitive and pure" than the academic art taught in Bombay. (Edwin Mullins, F N Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, p. 44) Of works such as the present lot, Mullins says: "These are not really erotic paintings in the true sense, but variations of a conventional theme explored by European artists... His nudes are only occasionally painted as beautiful or even as graceful...On the whole his paintings of nudes are more gentle that most of his other work; they have less impassioned ferocity about them. At the same time they are often the most perverse and obsessed... They suggest a personal fascination with the female body..." (Mullins, pp. 42-43)

The present lot was painted a year after Untitled (after Titian's Venus of Urbino and Manet's Olympia), in which Souza interprets the famous depiction of the Roman goddess luxuriously reclining in his own style. Both works forms a connection between the European art tradition and Souza's personal life, demonstrating how aptly he is able to manifest his own distinct personality on a subject that has been variously interpreted by Western artists over time.

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