Woman with a Basket of Fruit

Krishen Khanna has triumphed as an artist-observer, his canvases successfully giving room to marginalised sections of society, an example of which is this work. What, however, makes it historically seminal is the year of its making, 1957, when the country was celebrating a decade of its independence, but the creative community was expressing despair at the unfulfilled promise of a new nation. Many turned towards the theme of the figure at work, and this canvas represents Khanna’s engagement with issues of migration and survival. The fruit seller in this work stands tall, a vermillion bindi adorns her forehead, and the basket of fruit sits like a crown; the artist, thus, imbues her existence with a sense of pride.