Mother Teresa by M F Husain

The eight decade, the decade of eternal mother,
Her white sari, lights up the unlit lanes of Calcutta.
I paint and unfold several layers of her sari,
In search of my lost mother.
Sometimes her trembling hand,
Appears from the bodyless bundle of cloth
To touch her fugitive son.
- M. F Husain

According to an artist statement by R. Siddiqui in the book titled In Conversation with Husain Paintings, New Delhi, 2001, Maqbool Fida Husain saw Mother Teresa in Calcutta while he was walking with his pen and sketch book. He saw her draped in a white sari, comforting sick children and old people. He was moved by the scene and decided to make a portrait of her, but he felt that it would need a lot of study to depict her realistically because her personality, presence, and work were so great.

Husain first painted Mother Teresa in 1980, shortly after she received the Noble Peace Prize and the Bharat Ratna award. He was touched by her compassion and charity towards the vulnerable, sick and poverty-stricken, and he continued to paint her as a subject over the following years. In Husain's paintings, Mother Teresa is depicted as faceless but recognizable by her white sari with distinct blue bordersi, often accompanied by the weak and vulnerable, and holding a baby or a street child.

Husain's representation of Mother Teresa allowed him to explore a deeply personal and enduring theme in his work - motherhood. The artist alluded to the void left by his own mother's early passing and his inability to remember her face. Husain's mother died when he was two years old, and he has no picture or memory of her, which is a profound loss that he felt cannot be made up for. Browse through the individual series of Husain's serigraphs here:
Horses by Husain
Theorama Series by Husain
The British Raj by Husain