F.N. Souza, Indian, 1924-2002, 
Head of a Woman, 1956, 
Ink and gouache on paper, signed and...

F.N. Souza, Indian, 1924-2002, 
Head of a Woman, 1956, 

Ink and gouache on paper, signed and dated upper right in pencil Souza '56, framed

38 x 27.7cm.

(ARR)

Provenance: Property of a gentleman

Note :
The years between 1955-63 were a heady period of commercial and critical successes for Souza. During this time, he held five one-man exhibitions at Victor Musgrave’s Gallery One in London. He received glowing critical reviews in highly reputed papers including the London Times and New Statesman, by well-known critics such as Andrew Forge, John Berger, and George Butcher, who steadily defended Souza as one of the few really important living painters in England, along with Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon. He was also one of the five painters chosen to represent Britain at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and one of the prize winners in the first John Moore’s exhibition in 1958. At the time of the Guggenheim exhibition, the critic, Guy Brett, wrote in the Guardian newspaper ‘Most critics and dealers and people whose job it is to spot emerging talent cherish the belief that quite independent of the activities of the so-called avant-garde, there are and always will be figurative painters. Somewhere or other, they feel there must be a man, a Van Gogh, who is really painting from the bottom of his heart. Rouault was one although he was at first neglected even by dealers. F N. Souza seems to be the perfect candidate for this category.’ (ibid., p. 41) In 1956, Souza found his first major patron in the wealthy American collector, Harold Kovner, who paid him a monthly stipend to create works. This convenient arrangement rid Souza of any financial burdens and allowed him to paint with a freedom never experienced before or after. The tail-end of the 1950s was thus a period of extraordinary creativity for the artist.

This may be a study for the woman in a 1958 painting based on Susannah and the elders which was sold at Sotheby's 10 June 2019, Lot 123.