Indian art to go under the hammer at Bonhams

LONDON: UK-based auctioneers Bonhams will conduct a sale of Indian and Islamic art works on October 25 that includes a Raja Ravi Varma painting pegged in the range of 50,000-70,000 pounds.

Varma's work is set to attract wide interest at the sale of 60 lots that is estimated at 363,800-526,000 pounds, the organisers said.

Works of MF Husain (Female Nude and Horses), Amrita Sher-Gil (Seated Girl), FN Souza (Still Life, Northern Lights at Gill's Rock and Head), Jamini Roy (Female Dancer), SH Raza (Bombay Street Scene), Sadanand Bakre (Riverside Scene), KG Subramanyan (Garden Terrace with Divine Visitor) and J Sultan Ali among others will also go under the hammer.

In 1880, Varma painted the image of the Maharaja of Travancore and his younger brother welcoming Richard Temple-Grenville, the third Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Governor General of Madras on his official visit to Trivandrum.

Says Matthew Thomas of Bonhams' Islamic and Indian Department, "This painting provides us with an almost intimate snapshot of the official contact between the British and the Indian princes."

Souza's 1961 landscape is estimated at 60,000-80,000 pounds while Husain's Female Nude is valued at 40,000-60,000 pounds.

Souza's Still Life is pegged at 30,000-50,000 pounds while another of his work titled Northern Lights at Gill's Rock, is priced at 35,000-40,000 pounds. Another Husain painting Horses sports an estimate of 10,000-15,000 pounds.