Painting, Chinese landscape. by Jehangir Sabavala, watercolour on cardboard, India, ca. 1940-1950

Painting, watercolour on cardboard, in this painting the artist has depicted a Chinese landscape. In between the mountains and tress there are several pagodas and a bridge. In the foreground there are two birds which are larger and out of proportion to the rest of the scene. On the left hand side of the painting there is a yellow border on which the artist has line-drawn a pomegranate tree.

The artist has depicted a Chinese landscape. In between the mountains and trees there are several pagodas and a bridge. In the foreground there are two birds which are larger and out of proportion to the rest of the scene. On the left hand side of the painting there is a yellow border on which the artist has line-drawn a pomegranate tree.

Gift fo the artist. Rp 88/1984

Born in Mumbai in 1922, Jehangir Sabavala, obtained his diploma from the J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, in 1944. Between 1945-47, he went to study at the Heatherley School of Art, London, and from there on to Paris where he was enrolled at the Academic Andre Lhote between 1948-51 and the Academic Julian between 1953-54. Having studied in London and Paris during the 1940s and 50s he had direct access to European modernism. He says of his influences:
" On my return to India in 1951, I began to work on my own. Shedding along the way the classicism and impressionism which was my background and finding myself inextricably held by the single-minded directive of cubism." (1968) His landscapes in particular are heavily influenced by Cubism. In 1957, he did a course from the Academic de la Grande Chaumiere. In 1977, Sabavala was awarded the Padma Shri. He lives and works in Mumbai.

Born in Mumbai in 1922 in Mumbai, the artist has studied painting in London and Paris. His paintings are usually large scale cubist style landscapes in muted tones. This painting appears to be an experimental sketch very atypical of his work.

IS.94-1991