The rare oil portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, which is expected to be the only one who sat for the artist who painted three times his estimate of £ 152,800 at the Bonham Auction in London.
The image that has never been offered at the auction was on the online auction with a guide price range between £ 50,000 and £ 70,000 and was the highest number of travel and survey that closed on Tuesday.
Portrait artist, Clare Leighton, was introduced to Gandhi when he visited London in 1931 to attend the second round of the table.
“I thought it was the only Mahatmy Gandhi oil painting for which he was sitting, it was a very special work that has never been offered in the auction,” said Ryanon Demery, Bonhams sales.
“This work was completed in London, which was completed by artist Clare Leighton, especially known for her engraving of wood, which was proof of Gandhi’s power to connect with people far and wide and introduced a permanent document about an important moment in history,” she said.
The portrait remained in the collection of the artist until her death in 1989, after which she was handed over to her family.
“No wonder this work has caused such interest around the world,” he added.
At the time of painting, Leighton was in relation to political journalist Henry Noel Brailsford. Brailsford, a passionate advocate of Indian independence, traveled to the country in 1930 and later published the book “Rebel India” to support Indian independence, in the year when he first met Gandhi at a round table conference.
Bonhams said this connection was Leighton introduced by Gandhi. She was one of the few artists admitted to his office and was allowed to sit with him several times to sketch and paint his appearance, revealed the auction house.
In November 1931, Leighton introduced her portrait of Gandhi at an exhibition at Albany Gallery, London.
Journalist Winifred Holtby participated in the opening and wrote about the event in her column for the trade union magazine “Schoolstava”, she said; “Members of the parliament and former members, artists, journalists and artistic criticisms stood among the outstanding Indian women in clear sarehs and dignified figures of some of the main representatives of the Hindus at the conference. There was Mrs. Naida, statesman-poet … and Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas, one of Mahatmy’s colleagues.”
Gandhi himself did not participate in the party, but it was found that he was present in the works of the exhibited, which included his portrait in oil.
Holtby described the picture in more detail, and at that time said: “The little man squats, in his blanket, raised one finger because he often should emphasize the point, his lips split behind a word that is almost a smile. That’s a lot when I saw him as a guest for a great lunch in Westminster.
“He was a political leader, a gentle negotiator, a congress manipulator, a brilliant lawyer, a statesman who knows how to play on the psychology of friends and enemies.”
The following month, Gandhi’s personal secretary Mohadev Desai wrote a letter to Leighton, whose copy is attached to the Portrau Support Council.
It sounds, “It was a pleasure that you were a portrait of Mr. Gandhi.
There is no record that Leighton’s oil portrait, Gandhi would be reopened until 1978, when the Boston Public Library organized an exhibition of Leighton’s work. According to the artist’s family, however, the portrait was assumed that he was in public in public in public when he was attacked by a human knife.
The label connected to the support plate confirms that the painting was restored in 1974 by the Lyman Allyn Museum Conservation Laboratory.
(Tagstotranslate) Mahatma Gandhi (T) Mahatma Gandhi Oil Portrait (T) Bonhams Auction (T) Clare Leighton
