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Lot Essay
George Keyt's paintings of women are dynamic and evocative. Their figures have a sculptural quality, while simultaneously allowing line to remain the determining feature. Keyt's trademark eyes, greatly enlarged and almond-shaped, find examples in the traditional miniature schools of Central India, Mewar and Basholi.
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda writes about his work: "Keyt I think is the living nucleus of a great painter. In all his works, there is the moderation of maturity. Magically though he places his colours, and carefully though he distributes his plastic volumes, Keyt's pictures nevertheless produce a dramatic effect, particularly in his paintings of Sinhalese people. These figures take on a strange expressive grandeur, and radiate an aura of intensely profound feeling." (W. G. Archer, India and Modern Art, London, 1959, p. 124).
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda writes about his work: "Keyt I think is the living nucleus of a great painter. In all his works, there is the moderation of maturity. Magically though he places his colours, and carefully though he distributes his plastic volumes, Keyt's pictures nevertheless produce a dramatic effect, particularly in his paintings of Sinhalese people. These figures take on a strange expressive grandeur, and radiate an aura of intensely profound feeling." (W. G. Archer, India and Modern Art, London, 1959, p. 124).