Lot 54: USTAD ALLAH BUX (PAKISTAN 1895-1978) Untitled (Family Scene)

USTAD ALLAH BUX (PAKISTAN 1895-1978)
Untitled (Family Scene)
Signed lower right
Oil on canvas
109 x 44.5cm (42 15/16 x 17 1/2in).

Provenance
Private UK collection
Gift from the artist in the early 1950s to Ghulam Nabi Malik,
principle of Mayo school of Art, Lahore from 1947 -1954.
Thence by descent.
Born in Wazirabad, a town in Punjab, in 1885, Allah Bux had become
an accomplished signboard painter at a very young age. In 1914 he
travelled to Bombay where he worked in various establishments as a
photographer, retouch artist and portrait and landscape painter at the
Bombay Art Studio. In 1919 he returned to Lahore.
He painted popular scenes of Hindu Mythology. Allah Bux’s beautiful
work caught the eye of the Maharajah of Patiala, where he lived and
worked until he moved to Lahore permanently. His focus on Hindu
iconography and his free movement between what became India and
Pakistan was telling of a pre partitional shared visual identity.
Once settled in the newly formed Pakistan, Allah Bux looked to a
regional history of his homeland of Punjab for inspiration. He created
idyllic scenes of villagers, festivities and folk tales. This earned him much
popularity with Pakistani patrons, who would commission ‘Punjabi’
themed paintings, such as this example, directly from Allah Bux.
The colours are vibrant for the setting but there is a softness to Allah
Bux’s paintings. The delicate glinting jewellery and gold embroidery on
the clothes is masterfully highlighted in Allah Bux’s paintings. Charming
details such as the little girl’s doll or baby’s rattle demonstrate the level
of attention Allah Bux gave his canvases. The composition of this piece
is quite typical of Allah Bux, overlapping figures in order to depict as
many characters as possible in the space available.
Allah Bux was not just creating a whimsical romanticised scene, he
was creating a narrative of a golden age, an innocence pre dating the
war and bloodshed of partition and independence.