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Lot Essay
Abdur Rahman Chughtai began his training at the Mayo School of Art in Lahore in 1911, where he was taught by Samanendranath Gupta, a disciple of Abanindranath Tagore. He was deeply influenced by aspects of the Bengal School of art, which is particularly evident in his use of the wash technique. However, over the course of his career, Chughtai developed a distinct style that rivalled the Bengal School, and emerged as one of the leading practitioners across the Subcontinent. His works illustrate a fusion of influences including Mughal miniature painting, Islamic calligraphy and Art Nouveau, but remain grounded in the mythological traditions of the Subcontinent, oral histories and legends, and particularly the work of Urdu writers and poets like Mirza Ghalib.
“[Chughtai] retains the distinctive mood and posture of the Persian tradition but gives his paintings a special quality of his own in lovely colour combination, in delicious lines that seem to be less lines of painting than of some inaudible poetry made visible, in folds of drapery that are never mere coverings to or discoverings of the human body [...], in the decorative backgrounds that call the imagination away from the tyranny of the actual, into free citizenship of the realm of romance” (J. Bautze, Interaction of Cultures: Indian and Western Painting, 1780-1910, Virginia, 1998, p. 137).
In the present lot, Chughtai portrays the final scene of the love story of Majnu and Laila, a tale that has been told for centuries in poetry and prose. Qays ibn al-Mulawwah first met Laila al-Aamiriya, the daughter of a noble tribe, when they were children. What began as a friendship soon ripened into love, but in a world bound by tribe and honor, their relationship was forbidden. Laila’s father, wary of scandal and disapproval, denied their union and forced her into a politically advantageous marriage. Their unfulfilled love consumed Qays’ entire existence. He wove praises of her beauty and memories of her into every breath and verse as he wandered through the desert. His poems spread far and wide, and he became known as Majnu, the madman. Laila, though trapped in another man’s home, never forgot Majnu, eventually withering under the unbearable weight of her longing. News of her untimely death eventually reached Majnu in his lonely desert.
Here, Chughtai depicts Majnu in his characteristic style inspired by Persian miniature traditions, with smooth and delicate lines, a flatness of space and lack of chiaroscuro. He sets the world around Majnu on fire in shades of red, seemingly saturated with the passion of his love, and removes any sign of other emotions and elements heightening the intensity of his profound loss. A lifeless tree in the background appears to wilt in grief alongside Majnu. As the story goes, at Laila’s grave, Majnu embraced the earth above her and whispered his last breath into the soil. There, beside her, he also dies, and in death, the two were finally united in a love unbound by tribe, time or law.
“[Chughtai] retains the distinctive mood and posture of the Persian tradition but gives his paintings a special quality of his own in lovely colour combination, in delicious lines that seem to be less lines of painting than of some inaudible poetry made visible, in folds of drapery that are never mere coverings to or discoverings of the human body [...], in the decorative backgrounds that call the imagination away from the tyranny of the actual, into free citizenship of the realm of romance” (J. Bautze, Interaction of Cultures: Indian and Western Painting, 1780-1910, Virginia, 1998, p. 137).
In the present lot, Chughtai portrays the final scene of the love story of Majnu and Laila, a tale that has been told for centuries in poetry and prose. Qays ibn al-Mulawwah first met Laila al-Aamiriya, the daughter of a noble tribe, when they were children. What began as a friendship soon ripened into love, but in a world bound by tribe and honor, their relationship was forbidden. Laila’s father, wary of scandal and disapproval, denied their union and forced her into a politically advantageous marriage. Their unfulfilled love consumed Qays’ entire existence. He wove praises of her beauty and memories of her into every breath and verse as he wandered through the desert. His poems spread far and wide, and he became known as Majnu, the madman. Laila, though trapped in another man’s home, never forgot Majnu, eventually withering under the unbearable weight of her longing. News of her untimely death eventually reached Majnu in his lonely desert.
Here, Chughtai depicts Majnu in his characteristic style inspired by Persian miniature traditions, with smooth and delicate lines, a flatness of space and lack of chiaroscuro. He sets the world around Majnu on fire in shades of red, seemingly saturated with the passion of his love, and removes any sign of other emotions and elements heightening the intensity of his profound loss. A lifeless tree in the background appears to wilt in grief alongside Majnu. As the story goes, at Laila’s grave, Majnu embraced the earth above her and whispered his last breath into the soil. There, beside her, he also dies, and in death, the two were finally united in a love unbound by tribe, time or law.