Le Soleil

When he painted the impressive Le Soleil, Laxman Pai was living in Paris and missing his homeland and his life in a nondescript Goan village. Pai used elements from the Western masters, absorbing and utilising them through subjects and themes that were innately Indian. Le Soleil shows the remarkable control of Pai on the line and the colour that he applies with a feather touch on the canvas while still in Paris. The vignettes shown—people working; huts and other buildings; coconut trees; the bright sun—are probably a recollection of life in his village.