Interspersed are images of some of the signed, limited edition, lithographic prints by Husain that we have been fortunate enough to acquire. More of these can be viewed on our website www.indoislamica.com in the Modern Indian Art section.

Horse With Halo

Maqbool Fida Husain, often referred to as the Picasso of India, was born into a large, relatively poor family in Maharastra in 1915 . Mainly self-taught, he briefly attended art school, before moving to Mumbai (Bombay) where he supported himself by painting cinema hoardings.

In 1947 together with Souza, Ara, Gade and Raza among others, he founded the influential Progressive Artists Group. Though these artists were diverse in style, their overarching philosophy was described by Souza thus: ‘Today we paint with absolute freedom for content and technique, almost anarchic, save that we are governed by one or two sound elemental and eternal laws, of aesthetic order, plastic co-ordination and colour composition’.

Husain himself was a master of vibrant colour and dynamic movement. His boldly drawn compositions often featuring horses and women, together with passionate incursions into Hindu mythology and religion, combined western modernism with Indian art traditions.

His last years were spent in exile – in his 90s moving regularly between Dubai, New York and London, following death threats from Hindu fundamentalists. In 2005 he became the first living Indian artist to command US$1million for a painting.

Woman Spinning Charkha

Goel on Husain:

Since the early fifties, Husain has remained a colossal figure: his signature has the Midas touch and his use of the language and of classical dance is an aspect of modernism that is wholly indigenous. (1977)

Husain’s paintings are made for the eye: like fine music for the ear; his art is intended to give joy even when laden with symbolism. It is so well crafted, well-drawn, and delightfully painted that it often looks like a glossy toy. It is a most expensive toy, this Husain rocking-horse of childhood, its brilliance of colour and the alluring nostalgia. Yes, a Husain is always sweet, its sugar content always high; yet no one has accused him of causing nausea. It is this naive appeal which has enabled him to rule the Indian art market like a monarch; and Husain, to be sure, has never starved it.

A Husain painting is also a deeper kind of aesthetic experience… We look at his work in wonder; a work of art wrapped in a myth. Because of this particular quality no amount of critical noise has been able to diminish Husain hero worship; and he is aware of the spell his work has cast on the public, not only the educated urban sophisticates but villagers as well.

A Husain reflects myriad identities and leads us into temples dedicated to sacred myths. It is a complex of riddles, and the techniques of art history would be poor and inadequate tools in the hands of a Husain-admirer for resolving the riddles his art constructs. The admirer succumbs to its spell; he refuses to or cannot see: one would rather have faith in an illusion than have no faith at all. However this does not mean that Husain’s work has not been examined critically.

Yet despite all this, the totality of Husain’s oeuvre remains relatively unexplored. Perhaps it is the presence of an ethnic element that has apparently enabled it to transcend the limits of its historical context. It is this particular way of looking at life, that we find in a Husain painting that has lent his art a higher value….

Husain, in some sense, has become the name of a ‘style’, a ‘manner’, for the time being providing a contemporary focus on our art of the past. For Husain has brought to Indian painting all those innovations that we think are his, though they may in fact have been borrowed from the pictorial language of European art. However, in his work these have been assimilated and metamorphosed into his own style. Of all contemporary artists in the country, he alone seems able to contend with modernity.
(1988)

Hussain Painting Horses

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Sat 11 September 2010 to Sun 9 January 2011
Mellon Gallery (13)

This autumn, a landmark exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum explores the monumental artistic legacy of one of the world’s greatest literary epics: the 1000 year-old Persian ‘Book of Kings’, or Shahnameh.

Completed by the poet Ferdowsi in 1010 AD, this vast narrative poem telling the ‘Iranian version’ of the history of the world is an icon of Persian culture, inspiring some of the world’s most exquisite manuscripts. To mark the passing of a millennium since its completion, Epic of the Persian Kings: The Art of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh now brings together nearly one hundred paintings from these lavishly illustrated manuscripts spanning 800 years, in the most comprehensive exhibition of Shahnameh art yet mounted in this country.

Presenting a spectacular range of richly illustrated manuscripts and of Persian miniature paintings – drawn from public and private collections in the UK including the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, the British Museum, the British Library, the V&A, the Royal Asiatic Society, the Bodleian Library and collections within Cambridge – Epic of the Persian Kings: The Art of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh presents a captivating literary and artistic tradition that for many in the West has remained hidden.

A diverse programme of events will accompany the exhibition, from talks and lectures by international authorities on the Shahnameh and creative workshops for all ages, to concerts of Persian music, film and theatrical performances bringing these tales to life.

Bringing together a group of specialists in Arabic intellectual history, this conference will be both an occasion to explore the history of psychology in medieval Arabic thought and a forum to consider the interaction between the different intellectual traditions that thrived in the same wider milieu of medieval Islamic culture.


Convenor: Dr Ayman Shihadeh


Supported by the Altajir Trust and the Faculty of Languages and Cultures, SOAS.

More information here

Mosque on the Booragunga Branch of the Ganges.

This fine print originates from the rare work, Antiquities of Dacca by Charles D’Oyly.


Dacca, located in East Bengal, was traditionally a capital of Mughul viceroys and governors, and in the 17th century it became a British trading post.
Sir Charles D’Oyly (1781-1845) had his first opportunity to study Indian rather than British buildings when he became Collector of Dacca in 1808. Previously D’Oyly had been taught by the great artist, George Chinnery, in Calcutta. He later became the centre of a fashionable group devoted to drawing. A man of boundless energy, he was also a satirical observer of Anglo-Indian life. Between 1821 and 1832 when D’Oyly lived in Patna, travellers up the Ganges would stop there and spend lively evenings at his house, admiring his drawings and dining well.


Antiquities of Dacca was evidently produced over a number of years as the prints range in date from 1814 to 1827.Page of descriptive text included. Etched (probably from steel plates) and also published by John Landseer, 33 Foley Street, London 1814-1827.
Published by J. Landseer. London 4 Jun 1814.
Printed by John Tyler, 13 Rathbone Place, Oxford Street.


Inscribed ‘Drawn by Chas. D’Oyly Esqr.’ and ‘Engraved by J. Landseer, Engraver to the King and F.S.A.’/ ‘Proof.’ Wide untrimmed margins. Sheet size 580 x 430mm. (23 x 17ins). Plate size 335 x 265mm. (13.25 x 10.5ins).





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Hindoo Mut in the Chitpore Bazaar.

Reference: Abbey Travel 497 no. 23. J.R. Abbey, Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860 from the library of J.R. Abbey: a bibliographical catalogue. London 1957.

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From India Ancient and Modern. A Series of Illustrations of the Country and People of India and Adjacent Territories with text by Sir John William Kaye.

Sir Kaye observed that ‘these beautiful works of nature are situated at no great distance from the western coast of the Southern Peninsula of India, on the road from Hurihur to Honore, between Madras and Bombay’.

The falls of Gairsoppa

Published by Day & Son, London 1867.
Chromolithograph. Approx. 355 x 520mm on original card 450 x 635mm. (14 x 20.5ins/18 x 25ins).

William Simpson was born in Glasgow in 1823. His background was modest and he began his career in printing workshops in Scotland. In 1851, determined to better himself, he travelled to London and applied to join Day & Son, the pre-eminent London lithographers. He was engaged immediately. In his autobiography, The Autobiography of W. Simpson (editor G. Eyre-Rodd, London 1903) he wrote ‘I had to learn my profession over again. The work was confined to chalk; that meant the lithographic crayon, and it also meant exclusively pictorial work. All I had learned at plans, ornament, and line work was in a sense useless’. Day & Son had extremely high standards to which Simpson became accustomed.

In 1859, Simpson, who had by then made his reputation as a war artist in the Crimea, was commissioned by Day & Son to visit India and record the places affected by the momentous events of the ‘Mutiny’ of 1857…

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A unique print of Indian craftsmen from a set India Ancient and Modern. A Series of Illustrations of the Country and People of India and Adjacent Territories with text by Sir John William Kaye.

Published by Day & Son, London 1867.

9.5 x 13.5 ins (image size) laid down on original card.

In 1859, Simpson, who had by then made his reputation as a war artist in the Crimea, was commissioned by Day & Son to visit India and record the places affected by the momentous events of the ‘Mutiny’ of 1857. Before leaving, he spent ‘a considerable time in the library of the India House, then in Leadenhall Street, looking over books about India, such as Daniels’, to see what had been already done, and to get hints as to places I ought to visit’. The set of lithographs produced, based on his watercolours, was intended to rival David Roberts’ Holy Land in scope. However, the project never came to fruition. This was caused by the financial collapse of Day & Son, due to the rise of wood engraving. By 1866, Simpson had delivered 250 watercolours to Day & Son and these were subsequently sold off as bankrupt stock. Only 50 had been prepared as chromolithographs, and were published in 1867 as India ancient and modern. A series of illustrations of the country and people of India and adjacent territories.


For Simpson this was little consolation: ‘ So the great work on India, on which I had bestowed so much time and labour, never came into existence…’. For the remainder of his career, he worked mainly as a roving correspondent for the Illustrated London News.


Day & Son were amongst the most prominent lithographic firms of their time.They were unusual in that they were both lithographers and publishers. The art of colour lithography was raised to new heights in some of the magnificent books they published. William Simpson himself relates ‘… I knew that Day and Son were the principle lithographers in London, more particularly for artistic work, so I settled to apply to them first.’


The individual plates are rare. The British Library does not possess the complete set – arguably the most important chromolithographic illustrated work on India of the nineteenth century.

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Jeypore (Jaipur) - Entrance gate to the Maharaja's palace.

Circa 1870.


Albumen print. Mounted on a contemporary album leaf with titling in contemporary ink. Verso another albumen print circa 1870 titled ‘Lucknow – ruins of the Residence – the memorial’. 235mm x 190mm. (9.25 x 7.5ins).

Jaipur was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Jai Singh II, a Kachhwaha Rajput, who ruled from 1699-1744. Jaipur is the first city of India which was erected according to a plan, and is located in the semi-desert lands of Rajasthan.


The very structure of Jaipur resembles the taste of the Rajputs and the Royal families. The city is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets which are laid out into six sectors separated by broad streets 111 ft (34 m) wide. The urban quarters are further divided by networks of gridded streets.


At present, Jaipur is a major business center with all requisites of a metropolitan city.

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