Jamil Naqsh artwork – Cheffins 2025

Lot description

Jamil Naqsh (1939-2019) Woman with Pigeon signed and dated 'Jamil Naqsh 2006' (lower right) oil on canvas, unframed 122 x 152cm Provenance: Commissioned directly from the artist, 2005 Sale; Cheffins, 26 April 2006, lot 869 Born in Kairana, in the Uttar Pradesh province of India, Naqsh's early life was defined by a profound sense of loss and displacement. The tragic death of his mother, when he was just five years old, was compounded by the 1947 Partition of India. Alongside his brothers, the young Naqsh was forced from his family home and transplanted to the newly formed Pakistan, whilst their father stayed in India. Sadly, the children would never see their father again. Now essentially an orphan in a new country, Naqsh quickly found solace and structure in the arts. A reserved, yet fastidious child, it made sense that he would begin his formal training at the Mayo School of Art, under modern miniaturist master, Ustad Haji Mohammad Sharif. Under Sharif, Naqsh developed a rigorous command of technique, underpinned by a robust understanding of line and figuration. While Naqsh's early training was in the intimate and meticulous world of miniature painting, somewhat ironically, the miniature would give way to the monumental, and his later works would explode onto large canvases. Although now unshackled from the constraints of painting on minute slices of ivory or copper, Naqsh's later works demonstrate his command of line, as perfected under Sharif. The present work is a superb example of Naqsh's mature style, not only in terms of scale, but also in his chosen subject: the humble pigeon and the female form. Unfairly maligned by most of the world, for Naqsh, the pigeon was a symbol of peace, tranquillity and, crucially, nostalgia. Recalling his early childhood in India, where pigeons would flutter freely in and out of the ancestral home, in Naqsh's paintings, the pigeon becomes a poignant emblem of love and loss - it is not just a bird but a powerful expression of a lost memory. Similarly, Naqsh's handling of the female form is striking. For Naqsh, the woman is not an object for our gaze. Rather, she is monumental, almost sculptural in form and unflinching in her directness. Like his pigeons, Naqsh's depictions of women occupy the canvas with serene poise and quiet, though unmistakable, strength.