Handpainted – Matisse-Inspired – Vyaghra Mukhauta

Provenance

'Vyaghra Mukhauta' presents a tiger as a single, frontal, mask-like face set against a field of unbroken cobalt blue. It draws on Henri Matisse's habit of building a picture from flat blocks of strong colour, and on the bold, ornamental graphics of Indian decorative art. The tiger is reduced to pattern, a face assembled from stripes, diamonds and teardrop shapes, and its power comes from symmetry rather than from realism.

The face is painted in orange, yellow, pink and turquoise, with deep blue stripes curving across the brow and cheeks and diamond marks on the muzzle. The eyes are ringed in turquoise and blue, and bared white teeth sit above a patterned band. Cream tassel-like strokes radiate around the head and fall beneath the chin, and two pendants of stacked discs and diamonds hang on either side below the jaw.

Cobalt, saffron, coral, turquoise and cream are set against each other at full strength, and the cream fringe lifts the face from the blue. Short, visible brushstrokes keep the flat shapes alive, and the mirrored composition gives the picture a ceremonial stillness. It reads as a graphic emblem more than a portrait. The pattern repeats from left to right, so the eye moves across the face in a steady rhythm.