FN Souza's daughter Francesca remembers "bankrupt dad" before fame & fortune

A couple of months ago, a painting by FN Souza sold for $4 million at an auction in New York. So it's hard to imagine a time when the artist's work cost less than a telephone call. But it did, recalls his daughter, Francesca, in a note penned for a catalogue for the upcoming sale of Souza's works by Saffronart.

Francesca is referring to a period almost forty years ago, when Souza had emigrated to NY from London, remarried and started over. His daughters, Francesca and Karen, both teenagers, were eager to experience life in the "Big groovy Apple". But they "had no money and nor did bankrupt dad". So the sisters settled for the next best option, a phone call. "The price of a phone call to America in those years was far more than a Souza drawing," writes Francesca.

The sisters managed to find a telephone box in Camden Town that allowed them to make a call to NY for the cost of a local London call. For months, they would communicate with their father for hours at a time for five pence.

A transatlantic call was a rarity in those days. This often prompted Souza's son, Patrick (from his third marriage), to tell the world that he had a call from London at the other end of the line.

Over the four-page note in the catalogue, Francesca writes poignantly about her father as a painter and writer. He was a man of many letters, who kept up correspondence with his children, ex-spouses, friends and associates.

She quotes from a letter that Souza wrote to her mother, Liselotte (his second wife) on her birthday in 1980. This was years after the two had separated and Souza had remarried. He wrote, "It would be stupid to say I thank Hitler, but that is the case, because of him I found you."

Liselotte had come to London as a Central European Jewish refugee. "I wish to thank you for raising my daughters… for a decade or so you gave me great joy Liselotte. What did I give you? I gave you children and a load of misery with my alcoholism. I simply can't fathom why," he wrote.

A Souza at any

Two works by F N Souza grabbed the limelight in September because of the prices they commanded at different auctions. A record was broken at one auction, only to be trumped by another sale a week later.

'Man and Woman Laughing' sold for $2.59 million at Saffronart's 15th anniversary auction held in Delhi. It was the highest price the artist had ever fetched at an auction.

But a week later, 'Birth' came along. It was rumoured that the painting had been put on the block by Tina Ambani at the Christie's New York sale of south Asian modern and contemporary art.

The painting netted $4 million, setting a new world record for Souza. The new owner of 'Birth' is reportedly HCL founder, Shiv Nadar's wife, Kiran.