Inde, Les vaches sacrées, 1939
Oil on panel, signed and dated lower right.
103 x 130 cm
Provenance :
André Maire estate
Exposition :
Voyages d'André Maire, Musée Regards de Provence, Marseille, November 2017 - May 2018, illustrated on exhibition catalogue on p.38.
Under a storm-laden sky, streaked with light and shadow, André Maire stages two majestic, motionless sacred zebu, their white silhouettes standing out powerfully against the warm stone of the Dravidian temples. Their painted horns and the red marks on their foreheads signify their sacred status: symbols of fertility and protection, they also embody immovable peace at the heart of the world’s turmoil.
In the background, the monumental gopurams rise with hieratic solemnity, framed by polychrome hills. The scene takes on the air of an eternal fresco: a spiritual stage where the animal becomes both sacred and monumental figure, guardian of the sanctuaries and mediator between man and the divine.
Painted in 1939, following his travels in Asia, this work reflects Maire’s fascination with India and its rituals. True to his style, he blends ethnographic observation with decorative stylization, magnifying forms and exalting contrasts. Here, the everyday is transformed into myth: the sacred cows rest like living statues, radiating a silent power.