Mahatma Gandhi’s rare portrait up for sale next month in UK
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New Delhi: The only oil portrait of Mahatma Gandhi is set to be up for sale in London.
British-American artist Clare Leighton had Mahatma, the leading spirit of India’s freedom struggle, sit for the portrait in 1931, The Indian Express reported citing AFP.
According to the artist’s family, it is the only oil portrait Gandhi ever sat for. The painting will come up for auction at Bonhams from July 7 to July 15.
Rhyanon Demery, Bonhams Head of Sale for Travel and Exploration reportedly, said that painting was a rare work by Clare Leighton who was mainly known for wood engravings.
‘It is also thought to be the only oil painting of Mahatma Gandhi which he sat for,’ Rhyanon Demery said.
As the painting comes up for sale, the artist’s great-nephew, Caspar Leighton, termed it a ‘likely hidden treasure’.
The painting is thought to be sold at the auction next month for between £50,000 and £70,000 ($68,000 and $95,000).
Except for once in London in November 1931, the only other display of the painting took place at a Boston Public Library exhibition of Clare Leighton’s work in 1978.
Casper came into possession of the artwork from his father who in his turn got it after Clare died in 1989.
‘There’s my family’s story but the story in this portrait is so much greater,’ Caspar reportedly said.
‘I think it’d be great if it got seen by more people. Maybe it should go back to India — maybe that’s its real home,’ he was quoted as saying.
Clare Leighton met Gandhi in 1931 when the Indian leader came to London for discussions with the British government.
Her partner journalist Henry Noel Brailsford introduced Clare to Gandhi. She was part of London’s left-wing artistic circle.
Caspar said that his great-aunt shared what he said a ‘sense of social justice’ with Gandhi.
Leighton’s family said that a ‘Hindu extremist’ knifed the painting in the early 1970s.
Though the incident was not documented, a label on the back of the painting points to restoration that took place in the US in 1974.
Demery showed with a UV light what he said a ‘very deliberate’ deep gash running across Gandhi’s face.
