Thank you for registering for our auction! You are required to provide: 1. Deposit; 保证金待商议; 2. Copy or images of ID card (front and back) or Passport 3. Images of Credit card (front and back).
FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA (1924-2002) Untitled (Lady with a Veil) signed and dated 'F.N. SOUZA / 59' (on the reverse) oil on board 29 ? x 29 ? in. (74.9 x 75.6 cm.) Painted in 1959
The history of the present lot tells the story of the rise of Francis Newton Souza from struggling artist to modern master. Souza held his first solo exhibition in 1955 at Gallery One in London, directed by the famed art dealer and poet, Victor Musgrave. Gallery One, located in London's bohemian Soho, was notorious for both Musgrave’s refusal to show any known or ‘commercial’ artists and its program focusing instead on the new and shocking genre of Outsider Art. Musgrave took a chance on artists he believed in, and this prescience gave Souza his first real break in the London art world.
The present lot, a portrait of a veiled lady from 1959, was formerly in the collection of the late Robin Jared Stanley Howard CBE, an early investor in Gallery One. While Musgrave is credited with much of Gallery One’s rise, it would not have been possible without Howard, a man who shared and financially backed his vision. Howard was a great supporter of Souza’s avant-garde style and became one of his first patrons. Souza’s relationship with Howard marked the genesis of an artistic career which has only recently come fully into the public view. Howard became captivated by the vivacious talent of Souza, encouraging him to submit works for his first major exhibition in London.
Howard’s supportive encouragement soon yielded results. Within a few years, Souza's work had been widely exhibited and drew praise from several art critics including the renowned John Berger, who devoted a whole article to the artist's first Gallery One exhibition in the New Statesman. This marked a decade long association between Souza and the iconic gallery, cementing his position among London's artistic elite and literary intelligentsia.
The identity of the sitter in this somber portrait remains a mystery. While Souza often painted his friends, fellow artists and bohemian peers, it is suggested that the sitter here is possibly Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), a Russian author, occultist and philosopher famed for co-founding the Theosophical Society in 1875. Balavatsky had close ties with India, where she lived for six years, finding a group of kindred spirits who had similar spiritual outlooks, joined the Theosophical Society and supported her pantheistic philosophical theories.