Brushes with M. F. Husain

Even though I kept up with my ‘painting’ from time to time, I had lost contact with the artist fraternity and the art market.

It was somewhere in `98 that I felt the need to fill the empty spaces on the walls at my farmhouse with some large paintings. I did two for the living room.

I had a visitor one day. A chap called to buy one of my Labrador Retriever pups. While haggling over a price of the pup, he noticed the two paintings on the wall.

“Beautiful paintings,” he remarked, closely scrutinizing the works. “Who is the artist?”

I told him that the paintings were done by me.

“Do you sell your paintings? Would you care to sell these to me?”

“Well…” I wavered. “How much would you like to pay?”

“Don’t get mad… I am only hoping…How about twenty thousand each?”

I sold him both!

Not bad, I thought. Forty thousand bucks for a couple of afternoons of fun, putting paint and thoughts on canvas.

This tickled me enough pink to visit an art gallery in Delhi. Soon I was at the doors of Vadehra Art Gallery then in Defense Colony. I ambled in and struck a pose before a Husain.

Winter had just set in and I was in my Harris Tweed, beret and all. That must have impressed the lady – here was a prospective buyer.

“That’s a Husain, Sir,” she volunteered.

“How much does it cost?” I asked.

“Fifteen, Sir,” she replied. I remembered that I had just sold my paintings for twenty a-piece! Husain for only fifteen!

“We’ve got another one here in the corner, Sir. Take a look at it please.” And she guided me to the corner.

“I suppose it’s about the same price? Fifteen thousand?” I asked.

Her face changed to one of contempt and disgust.

“Not fifteen thousand – FIFTEEN LACS…!”

She turned around, dropping me like a hot brick, and walked back to her desk.

I gaped. Fifteen lacs!

Somewhere in 2003, both Tyeb Mehta and Maqbool Fida Husain sold their paintings for over two crore each.

A few days ago, in the newspapers, I read, “Hounded out, M. F. Husain becomes Qatar citizen.”

To me the news is utterly demoralizing.

One of the last times I met him was in November 2001 – the 23rd to be exact. I was invited to see, ‘the last 40 minutes of its completion, (Knight Watch 2001 set to Sound of Richard Wagner, at Vadehra Art Gallery, D – 40, Defence Colony, New Delhi.



I asked Manisha to meet me there. I introduced her to Husain who autographed a brochure for her, and presented her with one of the paint brushes he was using to complete the ‘Knight Watch’.




I used the right hand side of the brochure, now bearing his signature, to do a sketch of him while he was in the act of painting.

He has presented only three other brushes, of which one was to Madhuri Dixit and another to Amrita Rao. And now, Manisha, the forth recipient!

The brush was still holding acrylic paint. Manisha hurriedly began to wash it clean. I stopped her.

“Keep the paint on. Let it dry.” I knew the brush would soon be caked stiff and possibly out of commission forever! “The paint is proof that this brush was used on the 23rd of November, 2001, on the Knight Watch.”

Five years later, in the Times of India’s, ‘Delhi Times’, 28th December, 2006, an article appeared. The press reported thus: “I am very selective, I’ve done this (given brushes as gifts) to maybe four people in my life,” Husain muses. “I have given Madhuri one and I gave one to Amrita.”

So Manisha, is now the proud owner of one of Husain’s brushes!

I met him again in September 2003 on his 88th birthday, at the Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. It was a bash hosted by the local artist fraternity. He autographed a limited edition poster of one of his paintings for me.

Now at 95, M. F. Husain is faced with a dilemma. He has a decision to make: his citizenship – India or that of another country. “Inadequate security to artists is strangulation of free Bharat,” screams a newspaper headline, voicing our concerns too

Poster Signed for me by Husain on his 88th Birthday, 2003.