Sayed Haider Raza (Indian, 1922-2016)
Untitled (Village Scene)
signed 'S.H Raza 47' lower right
watercolour on paper laid on board, framed
42.5 x 55.5cm (16 3/4 x 21 7/8in).
Footnotes:
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF THE PROGRESSIVE ARTISTS

Provenance
Private Collection, Switzerland.
Acquired from Christies, South Asian Modern & Contemporary Art, New York, 12th September 2012, lot 383.

Note: This work will be included in the SH Raza, Catalogue Raisonné, Early Works (1940-1957) by Anne Macklin on behalf of The Raza Foundation, New Delhi.

Raza arrived in Bombay in 1943, aged 25, to attend the Sir J.J School of Art. Whilst waiting to join the School he obtained employment at Express Block Studio. The Studio was based in a bustling commercial district, and he painted the scenes he could see from his window. Two of these works were included in the group show at the Bombay Art Society in 1943, and it was here that critics like Rudi von Leyden took note of his works, and propelled him into the artistic limelight. The work on offer in this lot was made during this period, when Raza was studying at the Sir J.J School of Art (he graduated in 1948), and when he was predominately painting landscapes. Dominated by browns, with speckles of red, yellows and oranges, we can see details including the shapes of the buildings, the horse carriage and the streets teaming with vendors and people. The strong white illuminates the work and adds a level of depth and perspective as it draws our eyes to the vanishing point to the centre right of the work.

'The city of Bombay, with its wealth, high-rises, and noise was both awesome and forbidding for the boy used to the peace and quiet of the small town. The intellectual stimulation it provided was even more overpowering as the cross-currents of views served to bewilder rather than to illuminate. The subject of many of Raza's early works is the cityscape-narrow lanes and bylanes as well as buildings and monuments...what distinguished Raza's work from that of most other landscape painters was its non-representational quality, with the colour tonalities creating an innate rhythm. As his vision scanned the city, it began to draw upon changing lights, atmospheric effects on buildings, and people and he would create virtually new compositions of the same scene.' (Yashodhara Dalmia, The making of modern indian art, New Delhi, 2001, pg. 146-147)
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