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Colline de Planoise, Besançon, France
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Cover of Jean Giono,
Colline
,
Paris: Éditions Grasset, 1929
36
S H RAZA
(1922 ‒ 2016)
Untitled (Colline)
Signed and dated 'RAZA 57' (lower left)
1957
Oil on canvas
23.5 x 14.5 in (60 x 37 cm)
$ 60,000 ‒ 80,000
Rs 38,40,000 ‒ 51,20,000
PROVENANCE:
Saffronart, 1-4 December 2003, lot 19
Saffronart, 6-7 June 2007, lot 5
Private Collection, New York
I
n this painting titled
Colline
, which can
mean hill, hilltop or foothills, in French
and Italian, Raza captures the essence of
a mountainous terrain. Broken into planes,
the dabs of colour create a composition that
is abstract but has clear indications of the
landscape it represents. Giving it a title with
many connotations related to the hills, Raza
creates a painting that is equally complex in its
representation. The painting might also be a
reference to the 1929 novel,
Colline
, by French
author Jean Giono. It was also published in
English with the title
Hill of Destiny
. The novel
is set in a small village in Provence and is about
the struggles of its superstitious inhabitants
against the forces of nature. This likely provided
the topographical and thematic basis for the
present lot.
The decade of the 1950s was an important
one for Raza. The move to France led him to
understand and appreciate modern European
art and its attendant concerns with light, colour
and structure. Painted in 1957, when Raza was
still at an early stage in what was to become a
legendary career, the present lot forms part of
his early explorations with form and structure.
This would later lead to a more fluid gestural
abstraction and then to his engagement with
the
bindu
and its associated spirituality.
© S H Raza Foundation