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Sale Of Indian & Pakistani Paintings In London Set To Rival New York Prices
mailto:press@bonhams.com?Subject=Indian sale
 The next Bonhams sale of Indian and Islamic Art on October 12 & 13th in New Bond Street, offers a wonderful selection of modern and contemporary Indian & Pakistani works including the Austin Coates Collection of Jamini Roy paintings.
They promise to create much interest, especially so following the high prices achieved in New York in September for similar work.
Jamini Roy (India, 1887-1972) caused a sensation when after a successful career as a portrait painter he turned his back on his former style and pursued a new tack that took its inspiration from local Bengali peasant art.
Austin Coates (1922-1997) was one of Jamini Roy's greatest patrons, a supporter, promoter and above all friend. Son of the famous British composer Eric Coates, Austin Coates became a Special Magistrate in Hong Kong and travelled widely throughout India and the Far East. He was the author of several books on the region such as Myself a Mandarin, City of Broken Promises, and a biography of Jose Rizal of the Philippines.
It was during his travel to India around 1944 that Coates became a close friend of Jamini Roy and his family, often staying with the artist and becoming one of the few privileged to have seen him work. Coates wrote of Jamini Roy's anguish when in the 1920s he abandoned Western techniques and turned to the native Bengali peasant art, from which he derived his unique style and which ultimately catapulted him to international fame.
'At the time he was India's most successful portrait painter. Overnight he found himself scorned, ridiculed or ignored. For seven years he scarcely sold a picture, he and his family living often in dire straits. This happened a long time ago, in the 1920s, but it left an indelible imprint on him [...] To the sophisticated Indian eye his new way of painting was childish, deserving only of contempt in an adult [...] He was too poor to buy canvases; his work of this period is done on packing-case cardboard, soft covers of books, railway timetables and telephone directories. Unable to afford paints, he made his own from the original sources and has done so ever since.
In the 1930s an important section of Indian opinion came out in support of him. Leading Indian writers and poets, critics and connoisseurs, recognised the emergence of an artist of international stature. Like Picasso, it was said, Jamini Roy had introduced a new conception of form in art, but intrinsically Indian and owing nothing to the West.
The Roy works include Lot 268 Bride and two Companions tempera on card, signed lower right 75 x 39 cm. Estimate £10,000-15,000. Austin Coates described the painting: "Bride and two Companions, 1952. In the style of the late 1930's, slightly modified and stronger. Note the magnificent indigo of Bengal, and how the palms of the bride's hands are smeared with red sandalpaste. Jamini Roy's choice of colours looks at first sight purely decorative. In fact, nearly every thing in his pictures has a reason and a meaning."
Lot 272 Dual Cats with one Crayfish, tempera on card, signed lower right 55.5 x 44 cm. Estimate £3,000-5,000. Coates described the painting: 'Dual Cats with one Crayfish, 1968. Yet another new style, colours reduced in number and very restrained, an almost overwhelming sense of formality."
WORLD RECORD PRICES
Other fascinating pictures in this sale - not part of the Coates collection - include a number of artists whose work attracted high prices in New York and which Bonhams last sale made world record prices.
Lot 327 is by Jagdish Swaminathan (India, 1928-1993) `Mountain and Bird' oil on canvas, signed and dated '1985' in English and Devanagri on reverse 99 x 119 cm. Estimate £40,000-60,000. His painting The Tree The Bird The Shadow in Bonhams last sale of Indian and Islamic Art on 28th April 2005, estimated at £40,000 to £60,000, made £125,000 (hammer). A world record price for this artist.
Lot 247 by Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1987-1975) Muraqabat-e-Husn (Guarded Beauty) watercolour and ink on paper, signed 'Chughtai Lahore' in Urdu lower left 90 x 60 cm. Estimate £40,000-60,000.
The provenance of the picture is an interesting one. It was purchased by the present owner's family through G. Venkatachalam. Venkatachalam was a well-known Indian art critic and writer who published several books on the subject such as Modern Indian Painters and Contemporary Indian Painters both of which have a section dedicated to Chughtai.
Through his friendship with Her Highness the Maharani of Cooch Behar, Venkatachalam was able to persuade her to contribute funds towards the publication in return for paintings by Chughtai. Several of the works acquired by Her Highness the Maharani were sold at Bonhams (Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper from the Indian Sub-Continent, Bonhams Knightsbridge, 18th November 1999, lots 43-52).
Lot 255 Sadequain (Pakistan, 1937-1987)Woman in the arms of a beheaded man oil and felt pen on canvas, signed and dated 'Lahore 72' lower left 80 x 42.5 cm. Estimate £5,000-7,000.
Lot 284 Francis Newton Souza (India, 1924-2002) Night Landscape
oil on board, signed and dated '59 upper right; inscribed 'F.N. Souza 1959' and gallery label on reverse 36 x 135 cm. Estimate £30,000-50,000. Provenance: Nigel Gosling Gallery One, London.
Nigel Gosling (1909-1982) was art critic of The Observer from 1962 to 1975, having joined the paper in 1950 as general arts and features editor. Under the pseudonym Alexander Bland (shared with his wife Maude Lloyd) he was also its ballet critic from 1955 to 1982, and author of a number of books on the subject (including the editing of Rudolf Nureyev's autobiography).
As an art critic he helped to push into the international sphere the work of British artists such as Francis Bacon, David Hockney, and Graham Sutherland. He also wrote on Roy Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg and Mark Rothko and modernists such as Kandinsky and Klee. Yet his wide-ranging interest and expertise also extended to Rembrandt, Goya, Gustav Doré, Delacroix, and the photographer Nadar.
Lot 286 Francis Newton Souza (India, 1924-2002) `Profile of a Lady', oil on panel, signed and dated '57' centre left; gallery label on reverse 75.5 x 59.5 cm. Estimate £30,000-50,000.
Lot 318 Maqbol Fida Husain (India, b.1915) Bird gouache on card, signed lower right; inscribed 'M.F. Husain "Bird"' on reverse74 x 61.5 cm. Estimate £50,000-70,000.
Further information please contact Julian Roup on 00 44 0207 468 8259 or press@bonhams.com.
Notes for Editors
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest
auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today, Bonhams is the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world with a global network of offices and regional representatives providing sales advice and valuation services in 20 countries. It offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further 10 throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, Monaco, and Australia. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of more than 40 Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com For other press releases, go to www.bonhams.com/press.
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