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Lot 36*

Ustad Allah Bux (Pakistan, 1895-1978)
Maharani

11 June 2015, 14:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £17,500 inc. premium

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Ustad Allah Bux (Pakistan, 1895-1978)
Maharani

Oil on canvas
Signed and dated 1935
57 x 88cm (22 7/16 x 34 5/8in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private US collection
Acquired directly from the artist
Thence by descent

Born in Warizistan, in what is now Pakistan in 1895, Allah Bux had become an acclaimed and renowned painter in 1935 when he painted this piece. Stylistically his works bore the hallmarks of the European realism tradition however the content of his works were influenced by indigenous subjects. Known for his paintings of idyllic rural scenes of his home region of Punjab, Allah Bux routinely looked to Punjab folktales for inspiration.

Allah Bux began his painting career as a signboard painter before working at a railway workshop in Lahore as a carriage painter. Bux also worked for Agha Husher's theatrical company painting theatrical set backgrounds. By 1919 he had become a landscape and portrait painter in his own right. Such was his reputation by this point that he was invited by the Maharaja of Patiala in 1937 to paint exclusively for him.

Additional information