Lot 17: Hari Ambadas Gade (India, 1917-2001) Donkeys,

Donkeys, oil on card, label on backboard inscribed with the artist's name, title, original price (Rs.150) and a stamp of the Progressive Artists Group/Bombay, framed, 46.4 x 46.2cm (18 1/4 x 18 3/16in).

Provenance:
Private US collection: acquired by the present owner's parents at an exhibition of the Progressives in Bombay in 1950 or 1951, and thence by descent.

The label is unusual in featuring what appears to be an official or semi-official stamp (in purple ink) of the Progressives. The Progressive Artists' Group - which consisted of F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, S. K. Bakre, K. H. Ara, and Gade himself - held their first exhibition in Baroda in February 1949, and in Bombay in July 1949. The Group began to break up almost immediately with the departure of Souza, then Raza and Bakre in 1950, and Gade himself in 1952. (See Y. Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: the Progressives, New Delhi 2001, p. 71).