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Lot Essay
In 1942, Jehangir Sabavala gave up his studies in English literature and transferred to the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay to follow his nascent interest in painting. He was trained by the School’s principal Charles Gerrard and talented artists like Dhupeshwarkar and Ahiwasi, who taught him anatomy, life drawing, time drawing and other skills that would prove invaluable in his artistic career.
After Sabavala received his diploma in fine arts, he moved to Europe for a period of intensive training in London at the Heatherly School of Art and then in Paris at the Académie Julian and Académie André Lhote. During these years, the artist found himself negotiating “two schools of thought, the one conservative, the other modern. The student was left to learn what he could from these contending elements. After this, several years were spent under impressionist masters and more of rigorous apprenticeship with that brilliant cubist pedagogue the late André Lhote, a master of refined analysis and caustic judgement [...] the ‘40s were for me a period of concentrated study and assimilation in the ateliers, the galleries and the museums of Europe.” (Artist statement, ‘My Work and Attitudes to Painting’, The Onlooker Annual, 1968)
Painted at the culmination of this formative period in the artist’s career, just before his return to India, this academic nude is part of a series of figure studies Sabavala painted in charcoal, watercolours and oils from 1949 that illustrate the breadth and impression of his training in Europe. Reclining against oversized pillows of yellow and green satin, the nude in this painting languorously stretches out, occupying most of the painted surface. Surrounded by patterned fabrics, the subject and composition in this early painting recall Henri Matisse’s famous odalisques in their lavish oriental settings.
After Sabavala received his diploma in fine arts, he moved to Europe for a period of intensive training in London at the Heatherly School of Art and then in Paris at the Académie Julian and Académie André Lhote. During these years, the artist found himself negotiating “two schools of thought, the one conservative, the other modern. The student was left to learn what he could from these contending elements. After this, several years were spent under impressionist masters and more of rigorous apprenticeship with that brilliant cubist pedagogue the late André Lhote, a master of refined analysis and caustic judgement [...] the ‘40s were for me a period of concentrated study and assimilation in the ateliers, the galleries and the museums of Europe.” (Artist statement, ‘My Work and Attitudes to Painting’, The Onlooker Annual, 1968)
Painted at the culmination of this formative period in the artist’s career, just before his return to India, this academic nude is part of a series of figure studies Sabavala painted in charcoal, watercolours and oils from 1949 that illustrate the breadth and impression of his training in Europe. Reclining against oversized pillows of yellow and green satin, the nude in this painting languorously stretches out, occupying most of the painted surface. Surrounded by patterned fabrics, the subject and composition in this early painting recall Henri Matisse’s famous odalisques in their lavish oriental settings.