Important Notice

“Husain’s horse swept across continents, amalgamating various influences into a composite form… [they], however, are singularly his own.”
— (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Metaphor for Modernity,” The Making of Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 107-108)

The horse was a ubiquitous presence in M F Husain’s childhood. He would accompany his grandfather to the workshop of the local farrier Acchan Mian... “Husain’s horse swept across continents, amalgamating various influences into a composite form… [they], however, are singularly his own.”
— (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Metaphor for Modernity,” The Making of Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 107-108)

The horse was a ubiquitous presence in M F Husain’s childhood. He would accompany his grandfather to the workshop of the local farrier Acchan Mian for social visits where he would spend hours around tongas and horses owned by the Holkar kings. Every Muharram, he was awed by the processions with magnificent effigies of Duldul, the martyred horse of Imam Hussain from the Battle of Karbala. The rich composite culture of the Indore of his youth would have also exposed him to the importance of the horse in Hindu traditions, and as an adult he specifically brought up the significance of Ashwamedha, the ancient Vedic ritual horse sacrifice which plays a part in the Mahabharata. He accrued inspiration from disparate sources like the Chariot of the Sun God in Konark, Sung Dynasty statues, the Bankura horses, and German Expressionism. Acknowledging the manifold complexity of one of his favourite subjects, Husain said, “My horses like lightning, cut across many horizons… They hop around the spaces. From the battlefield of Karbala to Bankura terracotta, from the Chinese Tse Pei Hung horse to St. Marco horse, from ornate armoured Duldul to challenging white of Ashwamedh… the cavalcade of my horses is multidimensional.” (Dr Daniel Herwitz, Husain, Bombay: Tata Press, 1988, p. 83)

The present lot is an oil on canvas featuring a majestic horse rearing on its hind legs. It betrays the distinct influence of two of Husain’s formative inspirations: Bankura horses and the Chinese artist Xu Beihong. Husain’s horse, delineated as if frozen in action while rearing, suggests a vitality that has been present in his recurring subject since viewing Beihong’s painting of a thousand horses 1952, thirty years before creating this work. “Xu’s horses were in motion; they galloped, reared, and snorted. Inspired by Xu Beihong, Husain infused his horses with a new vigor, an enlivened energy of movement combining dragon-like elements of masculinity with feminine grace.” (Susan S Bean, “East Meets West in Husain’s Horses,” Lightning by M.F. Husain, New York: TamarindArt in association with Asia Society Museum New York and Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 43) Husain’s bold, energetic lines lend dynamism to the subject. He masterfully manipulates the medium to resemble the Chinese brush painting style Beihong used to render his horses in. The elegant long neck and raised ears are features that Husain borrowed from the terracotta Bankura horse, a folk art tradition of West Bengal that he was moved by during his travels across India.

In this work Husain brings together two of his most important subjects, the horse and the woman. Seen here mounting the horse, the woman is drawn in the same bold lines as the horse. The grace of her form is emphasised by the fluid lines which are echoed in the tail and hind of the animal. Art critic Shiv S Kapur asserts that Husain, who was influenced by the German painter Franz Marc’s works which celebrated the unity of life, bonded these two archetypes in an “explosive charge of life… The woman is being carried aloft, seeming to ride the horse symbolically, as though she rode the wind. There would seem to be enough ecstasy of sex in this painting to gather all of life into one headlong apocalyptic image of flight from darkness into darkness.” (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc., 1972, p. 44)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site