Francis Newton Souza (India, 1924-2002)


Girl Signed 'Souza' and dated '63 upper left and further inscribed 'Girl- 1963/ 59 x 40 1/2' on reverse Oil on canvas173 x 104cm (68 1/8 x 40 15/16in).
|Provenance:Private Collection, Dubai;Sotheby's, Indian Art, 2 May 2008, Lot 31.Souza was renowned for his often hypersexualised images of women and couples. Some viewed this as a perverse preoccupation but Souza's focus stemmed from the oppressive duplicity of Catholicism. As a Roman Catholic, he was raised in an environment that outwardly considered nudity and sex as deviant social anomalies yet followers would partake or wish to partake in those same activities. Souza was preoccupied with the hypocrisy of the Church and the notion of Original Sin. As he explains, '... as a Roman Catholic youth born in Goa, I was familiar with the priests bellowing sermons from pulpits against sex and immodesty particularly addressed to women, making them stricken with guilt. The Catholic men stood cocky in their suits and ties agreeing with the priests, lusting for naked women inwardly. Hypocrites!'(F.N. Souza, Naked Women and Religion, Debonair, 1992)Souza's earlier nudes from the 1940s and 50s favoured a rounded and statuesque aesthetic clearly influenced by classical Indian temple carving. Upon his move to London, Souza's nudes demonstrate his exposure to the nudes of European art history. We can draw parallels with this work and the Venus of Urbino by Titian, an artist Souza greatly admired. In his monograph on the artist, Edwin Mullins discusses the significance of the female nude in Souza's practice.'[Souza's] women with girdles and high rounded breasts, fastening a pin in their hair [...] clearly have their origins in Indian stone carvings and bronzes. Yet in spirit they are not traditional [...] On the whole his paintings of nudes are more gentle than most of his other work; they have less impassioned ferocity about them. At the same time they are often perverse and obsessed. The inelegant sexual poses, the blunt emphasis on the pregnant belly, the ravaged face. They suggest a personal fascination with the female body, blended with an almost Swiftian disgust with its natural functions.' (E. Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond Publishers, London, 1962, p. 43)There is an erotic tactility to this work. Unlike the reclining nudes of influence, the figure here has legs spread and although not as explicit as Courbet's L'Origine du monde there is a heightened eroticism through what is only partially obscured by the subject's underwear. Souza's numerous nude paintings vacillate between the mundane and the sexually charged. Souza brings in depth to the image with colour and texture, there is impact in its simplicity and yet also a focus on pattern on her high heels, the lace edging of the underwear and the fluffy rug at her feet - the very details that a lover may nostalgically recall. This work has a romanticised misogyny that is quintessentially Souza.