Selfie with Souza, the painter who shot to international fame before Hussain

Apart from being a highly acclaimed painter, Francis Newton Souza was a pretty good writer too. One of his autographed books, Lines and Words, that he had presented to me, is a cherished treasure

Picture Talk/By NK Sareen

Francis Newton Souza was already an internationally-recognised, highly rated painter, living in New York, when I was first introduced to him during his yearly visit to India by one of my dearest friends and owner of one of the oldest art galleries located at Connaught Place in New Delhi. From that first brief meeting with Souza, we hit it off so well and developed such good chemistry and liking for each other that our friendship lasted until Souza breathed his last.

Souza was a Goan Catholic, studied art at J J School of Art in Bombay, and was one of the five founding members of the Progressive Artists’ Group, PAG in short – MF Hussain, KH Ara, SH Raza, and Krishen Khanna being the other four. Souza was the first among the five who got international exposure and recognition.

Apart from being a highly acclaimed painter, he was a pretty good writer too. One of his autographed books, Lines and Words, that he had presented to me, is a cherished treasure.

On each of his visits to Delhi, Souza would call me, sometimes even informing me before his visit. We would meet very often for lunch or coffee or in an art gallery and chat for hours. Souza would talk very frankly and openly about his life – his visits to various countries, his girlfriends around the world, his visits to red light districts, things I had never heard from anyone else.

Once he even invited me to accompany him to go about 70 kms out of Delhi to meet a young woman who used to write very passionate letters to him. One married young woman from Bombay was invited and stayed with Souza in the US for about six months. Souza would tell me very excitedly and in minute details about all of these women without my asking.

Once, after watching Souza tearing sheets from magazines and painting on them, I suggested to him that instead of magazine papers I could give him my original pictures on good quality photo paper, and he could paint on them. He liked my idea immensely and immediately took all the prints I had with me.

Just before leaving Delhi for the US, he called me and asked me to visit him with more prints in different sizes, and also to look at the work he had done on them. Souza took about 150 prints in different sizes from me to work on them. He returned back to me seven or eight prints that he had already worked on and asked me to keep them so that when he comes back the next time, we would have a joint exhibition in a prominent gallery, showing his work on my pictures. I didn’t know that that would prove to be the last time I was meeting him.  He did come to India, but he first went to Bombay, fell sick there, and passed away.

This picture was taken during one of my several meetings with him during his last visit to Delhi.

[In this column, ‘Picture Talk’, veteran photo journalist NK Sareen, a former Photo Editor at Expanse International and a writer, shines light on some of the pictures of personalities he has clicked over the years, with a touch of nostalgia. The views expressed here are the author’s own and The News Porter bears no responsibility for the same.]