Untitled (Bombay Taxi Stand)

Signed 'W Langhammer' (lower right)

Circa 1960

Watercolour on paper

15 x 22.25 in   |  38 x 56.5 cm

PROVENANCE
Mr Ali Imam of Indus Gallery, Karachi
Private Collection, USA
Private Collection, Mumbai

BOMBAY AT HALT: TAXI STAND BY THE GATEWAY

Langhammer’s Taxi Stand distils the pulse of mid-century Bombay into a masterful orchestration of colour, form, and rhythm. The Austrian émigré, who arrived in India in the late 1930s, brought with him the chromatic sensibility of European modernism, yet found in the streets of Bombay a visual language that was distinctly his own. Here, the city’s ceaseless motion—its drivers, vehicles, and pedestrians—becomes an abstracted symphony of light and geometry. The composition—likely inspired by the Gateway of India or Apollo Bunder precinct—depicts a cluster of Bombay’s iconic black-and-yellow taxis idling beside a stone monument and tree-lined boulevard, the scene animated by strolling figures and the filtered glare of the Arabian Sea.

Painted with his characteristic fluency of brushwork and commanding tonal contrasts, the composition transcends mere depiction to evoke the psychological texture of the metropolis: its heat, density, and human energy. The arrangement of taxis, rendered almost as architectural modules, conveys the collective rhythm of urban labour, while the interplay of ochres, blacks, and vivid primaries captures the shimmering haze of the Indian sun refracted through metallic surfaces.

Born in Graz and trained at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Walter Langhammer settled in Bombay in 1938, becoming a catalytic presence in the city’s modern art world as Art Director at The Times of India, and as mentor, critic and patron to the future Progressive Artists’ Group (including Ara, Raza, Husain and Souza). His practice fused European discipline with an affection for Bombay’s everyday theatre—markets, seafronts and crowded junctions—where light, monsoon haze and the tempo of the street became primary subjects. Works of this type—intimate, observational street scenes—register the social fabric of the post-Independence metropolis as surely as they showcase Langhammer’s modern realist idiom: taut drawing, supple colour and a journalist’s eye for incident.

Comparable city subjects and Bombay views by Langhammer are recorded in auction and institutional literature, including street scenes and a Gateway of India composition, underscoring his sustained engagement with this urban iconography

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This lot is offered at RESERVE

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