The portrait genre for Maqbool Fida Husain was reserved only for his closest friends and their families. Each rare example captures his sitters in poignant moments in time, drawing the family together in art and life. Portraiture for Husain is the art that remembers a person at their most manifest moment, and relates their story to the world. Husain painted those who held special meaning to him, his inner circle and his treatment of the figures communicates a tender affection with every brush stroke.

This portrait was painted in Rome in 1961 and depicts Sonali Dasgupta in her yellow silk sari with her children Gil and Raffaella Rossellini. Educated at Santiniketan, the late Sonali Dasgupta was renowned for her elegant beauty and married the celebrated Italian film maker Roberto Rossellini. Rossellini met the 27 year old Dasgupta on a visit to India having been invited by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to make film there in 1956. Following a much-documented celebrity romance, Dasgupta left India for Paris with Gil, her new-born son from her first marriage. Following a short period living together in the Paris studio of Rossellini’s friend, the renowned photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, he and Dasgupta settled in Rome where they had a baby girl, Raffaella. In the present painting, Husain depicts Dasgupta with her two children only a few years after their move to Rome.

Husain became close friends with Rossellini and Dasgupta in India, playing a vital role in their relationship, and in fact chaperoned Dasgupta to Delhi on her way to Europe to be reunited with Rossellini. Husain visited Italy many times starting 1956, having been chosen to represent India in the Venice Biennale. The family fondly recall Husain’s regular visits to their home in Rome which lasted for months at a time. In many ways Husain was seen as another member of this illustrious family.