626. FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA (INDIEN, 1924-2002). “Landscape with crows”.

Oil on Board, 61 x 106 cm. Unsigned. Executed in 1956.

Certificate/letter of authenticity of the work is included.

PROVENANCE:
Purchased directly from the artist by Ragnar Zedell, gallerist in Gamla Stan, Stockholm, .
Private collection. Gift to the current owner.

Francis Newton Souza was born in 1924 in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India. During his lifetime, he became one of India's most influential modern artists.

As a child, Souza moved with his mother from Goa to Bombay. Raised in a Catholoque environment, he began there in a school run by Jesuit priests. Here he developed his interest in drawing and studied prints and images that came from Europe. He was a rebellious young man who, aged 15, was expelled from school when he was caught drawing pornographic pictures in the school toilets. Later, he enrolled at J.J School of Art in Bombay. There, too, he was suspended when he and 21 other students joined Gandhi's “Leave India” movement. Following this, Souza chose not to return to his art studies.

In 1947, Souza, along with other avant-garde artists, founded the “Progressive Artists Group” (PAG). They strove to combine the classical culture of India with innovative Western techniques and styles. The group came to play a crucial role in the development of modern art in India.

In 1949 Souza left India for London with the hope of meeting a more liberal arts audience. Postwar London, however, was not what he had hoped for and Souza's early years in London became difficult.

A couple of years later, in 1955, Souza showed three works at the newly opened Institute of Contemporary Arts side by side with Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, among others. In the same year, he also had his first solo exhibition at Victor Musgrave's Gallery One. The exhibition was a great success for Souza and he established himself as one of the most interesting artists on the London art scene.

Souza was often provocative and controversial in his choice of subject matter, exploring themes such as eroticism, religion, (Catholicism in particular), and the dichotomy between evil and good. During his long career Souza experimented with a range of styles and expressions, but it is for his strongly figurative painting with driven black lines executed in London during the 1950s and 60s that he is best known.

In the work of the auction “Landscape with Crows” we see a typical example from the time in London. A landscape in autumn colors with some low houses on the horizon. In the foreground stand two trees with bare, pointed branches. In the air, crows circulate anxiously. In the mid-50s, when this work was executed, Souza was living in Hampstead Heath and many of his paintings from this time depict his immediate environment. These paintings show no signs of human presence and can appear cold and brutal. But despite the palpable sense of gloom, the paintings are driven and confidently executed. The clear thick lines give the paintings a rich fullness and show a purposeful and new way of painting.