Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, Italy.

Ara's early works were based on human situations, which he turned into compositions much in the manner of textbook life studies. These were generic studies of fishing trawlers, men and women at wedding receptions and horse-riders, akin to the academic studies taught in art school and reminiscent of turn-of-the-century painters like Dhurandhar and Abalal Rahiman. (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001, p. 129)

This rare early work by Ara, depicting women selling fish, is a remarkable example of the artist's understated mastery and his deeply empathetic gaze toward the everyday lives of working-class individuals. Executed with a startling economy of line and colour, the painting is almost ethereal in its presence, offering not just a scene, but a quiet moment suspended in time. Ara, a founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group and one of the earliest modernists in India to portray the lives of the underrepresented, brings to this work a sense of humility and intimacy that is both tender and dignified.

In the composition, a group of women are engaged in the act of selling fish, an everyday occupation rendered with poetic simplicity. Most of the figures have their backs turned to the viewer, drawing attention away from individual identity and instead focusing on the quiet rhythm of labour and community. This choice of perspective is powerful, it resists spectacle, demanding instead a contemplative engagement from the viewer. The forms are shaped with minimal, almost calligraphic lines, and the restrained palette heightens the sense of calm detachment, turning a bustling scene into something meditative and timeless. Only two figures, a man and a woman, face the viewer, creating a subtle point of visual and emotional tension in an otherwise inward looking tableau.

The painting also stands as an early testament to Ara's deep concern with representing women not as passive muses, but as agents within their own environments. These women are not idealised, but neither are they diminished; they are sturdy, grounded, and fully present in their world. The nearly monochromatic colour scheme, punctuated by subtle washes, enhances this realism without embellishment. There is no sentimentality here, just a quiet observation that verges on reverence.

In this rare work, one witnesses the foundational elements of Ara's lifelong artistic practice, his modernist reduction of form, his lyrical restraint, and his commitment to painting life as it was lived. It is a poignant reminder that beauty can be found in the most ordinary moments, and that art, in Ara's hands, becomes a space for dignity, memory, and humanity.

For a similar work sold at Pundole's see The Fine Art Sale, 17th October 2024, Mumbai, lot 3.