Francis Newton Souza

Francis Newton Souza (1924, 2002) was a pioneering Indian modernist painter and a founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group of Bombay in 1947. Known for his raw, expressionistic figurative works depicting nudes, landscapes, and religious iconography infused with themes of sexuality, sin, and colonial critique, he became one of the first post-independence Indian artists to achieve significant international recognition. His works have achieved record-breaking prices at major auction houses including Christie's and Sotheby's, cementing his status as one of the most valuable Indian artists on the global market.