Untitled (Portrait of a Woman at a Spinning Wheel)

Austrian artist Walter Langhammer had come to British India in the 1930s as a refugee from Nazi Germany and would go on to live here for nearly four decades. His active participation in Bombay’s fledgling modern art scene spurred the formation of the Progressive Artists’ Group who he provided with the intellectual direction it needed. For his own art, Langhammer took the vibrancy of colour from his Indian experience, as evident in this portrayal of an Indian woman at the spinning wheel, where the expressionist strokes are accentuated by warm Indian colours.