Lot 109
B. PRABHA (INDIAN, 1933-2001)
UNTITLED
Auction: 10 December 2025 from 14:00 GMT
Description
oil on canvas, upper right: signed in Devanagari and dated '83
Dimensions
110cm x 143cm (43.25in x 56.25in)
Provenance
Property from ‘Glasgow Legacy: The John Shaw Collection.’
Dr John McCallum Marshall Shaw (1949–2022) was a Glaswegian, international businessman, philanthropist, and passionate collector of Scottish art. His collection spanned 250 years, from Allan Ramsay to Stephen Conroy, reflecting his love of portraiture, landscapes, marine scenes, and depictions of Scottish life. Over 30 years of collecting Shaw acquired works by Raeburn, Ramsay, Lawrence, Lavery, Walton, McTaggart, Guthrie, Paterson, and others, linking him to Scotland wherever his career took him - from India to South Africa and beyond.
Following significant gifts to the holdings of The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery and Paisley Museum by his widow, Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in 2025, selected works are now being presented at auction. These are being offered to benefit Shaw’s alma mater, the University of Glasgow.
Footnote
This striking example of Prabha’s work embodies all the qualities of her signature style. Graceful, elongated figures of pensive rural women beautifully articulated in oil and dominated by a single colour. Prabha started working at a time when India had few women artists. Deeply inspired by the work of seminal modernist Amrita Sher-Gill, she chose to focus on the plight of rural women providing an intimate snapshot into their lives. By the time of her death, her work had been shown in over 50 exhibitions, and had found its way into significant art collections, including India's National Gallery of Modern Art, the TIFR Collection and the Air Indian Collection. Set against a wild back drop this group portrait portrays Indian women and children with beautiful flowing robes, profiled from the side and eyes fixed on the horizon.
A very similar painting in terms of style and size, and clearly from the same year, recently sold in Indian through Asta Guru Auction House, Historic Masterpieces, 14 December 2024-16 December 2024, lot 111.