Roseberys' Arts of India sale (Tuesday 10 June) will offer a previously unseen 1956 ink and gouache by F.N. Souza, believed to be a rare study for his major early painting Suzanna and the Elders, which sold at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £1,191,000.

Lot 197: F.N. Souza, Indian, 1924-2002, Head of a Woman, 1956,

Estimate: £6,000 - £8,000

The work is part of a significant private collection of figurative Indian modernist works, from the property of a gentleman. This is the first time the collection has appeared at auction. Spanning Lots 197 to 204, and dating from the 1950s to the 1970s, the group also features works by Souza’s half-brother Lancelot Ribeiro, as well as by Arup Das and A.A. Almelkar.

Souza’s Head of a Woman, painted in 1956 in ink and gouache, bears the unmistakable hallmarks of his mid-century London period: mask-like features, an exaggerated aquiline nose, and pronounced black etching that gives the composition its searing psychological charge. Research suggests that the work could be an early study for Suzanna and the Elders; it bears striking visual similarities to the finished painting, including the nose rendered in three planes of black, yellow and blue, a chain-link necklace, a thinly drawn agape mouth, and a three-quarter view composition.

Souza was producing preparatory works for Suzanna and the Elders as early as 1955. A 1958 letter held in the Tate Archives to his gallerist Victor Musgrave suggests that the final painting was completed in November that year, making the Head of a Woman study contemporaneous with other known works associated with the project.

Souza, a co-founder of the Progressive Artists’ Group in 1947, was at the height of his critical acclaim during the late 1950s. Exhibiting solo at London’s Gallery One, he received praise from critics including John Berger and George Butcher, who ranked him among Britain’s most important painters, alongside Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland. This period marked an extraordinary burst of creativity, supported for the first time by patron Harold Kovner, and produced some of the most iconic, uncompromising images in postwar British and Indian art.

Two works by Lance Ribeiro: Lots 201 & 202

Each estimated at £3,000-£4,000

Lancelot Ribeiro, who followed Souza to London in 1950, initially studied accountancy before turning fully to painting. The oil works included in the sale are fine examples of his early expressionist style - charged townscapes marked by thick impasto, jagged linework, and heavy outlines. While Ribeiro’s early works echoed Souza’s intensity, he quickly developed a distinctive visual language rooted in architectural form and diasporic identity. In 1963, he co-founded the Indian Painters Collective UK, giving voice to South Asian artists in Britain over the next 25 years.

Lot 200: Arup Das, Indian, 1924-2004, Untitled (Portrait of a Seated Lady), circa 1960

Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000

Also featured is a powerful figurative painting by Arup Das (1924–2004), known for his deeply empathetic portrayals of the human condition. Influenced by post-Independence socio-political change and later exposure to European modernism through a British Council scholarship, Das brought the human figure to the centre of Indian narrative painting in the mid-20th century.

Lot 203: Abdulrahim Apabhai Almelkar, Indian, 1920-1982, Untitled (Women fishing), Tempera on card
Estimate: £5,000 - £7,000

A vibrant tempera on card work by A.A. Almelkar (1920–1982) completes the offering. Though not directly tied to Bombay’s revivalist school, Almelkar drew on miniature, tribal and folk traditions to create rhythmic, richly textured compositions. His distinctive style, marked by a graceful serpentine black line, renders traditional subjects with unmistakably modern energy.

“This tightly curated collection offers a vivid glimpse into the aesthetic and political ferment of Indian modernism, anchored by a compelling and newly revealed work by one of its leading figures. The June 10th Arts of India sale is an exciting proposition for collectors, seeking works of institutional quality at entry level prices” said Alice Bailey, Director and Head of Indian & Islamic Art at Roseberys.