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Lot Essay
In this painting from 1961, Francis Newton Souza portrays a male figure with an elongated head. Seemingly serene, the subject’s wide, high-set eyes, tubular nose and long chin are accentuated by the artist’s signature hatched lines. This beatific figure also wears a patterned tunic, alluding perhaps to the robes of representatives of the Catholic Church. Souza was brought up Catholic in Goa, a former Portuguese colony in India, and the rituals, objects and vestments associated with the religion became a lifelong obsession for the artist.
In his book, Words & Lines, first published in 1959, Souza recalled, “The Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services [...] The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolising the accoutrement of Christ’s passion“ (Artist statement, Words & Lines, London, 1959, p. 10).
Later in his life, figures of authority such as priests came to represent both veneration and repudiation for Souza, a paradox he wrote about in an autobiographical essay titled ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’, also published in Words & Lines. In this sharp essay, the artist discusses a friendship he struck up with a vicar on a trip to Goa, writing, “The vicar of the village church was a man of great religious fervour, unlike those others one meets in Goa who take priesthood and make it a mercenary end. The sacerdotal profession is a lucrative business there. The vicar and I became friends […] a sinner could be a good friend of a saint and a saint must necessarily be a friend of the sinner” (Artist statement, Words & Lines, London, 1959, p. 15).
In his book, Words & Lines, first published in 1959, Souza recalled, “The Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services [...] The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolising the accoutrement of Christ’s passion“ (Artist statement, Words & Lines, London, 1959, p. 10).
Later in his life, figures of authority such as priests came to represent both veneration and repudiation for Souza, a paradox he wrote about in an autobiographical essay titled ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’, also published in Words & Lines. In this sharp essay, the artist discusses a friendship he struck up with a vicar on a trip to Goa, writing, “The vicar of the village church was a man of great religious fervour, unlike those others one meets in Goa who take priesthood and make it a mercenary end. The sacerdotal profession is a lucrative business there. The vicar and I became friends […] a sinner could be a good friend of a saint and a saint must necessarily be a friend of the sinner” (Artist statement, Words & Lines, London, 1959, p. 15).