Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm (8.5 x 11.2 inches)
Mount/Sheet Size: 23 x 33 cm (9 x 12.9 inches)
Frame Size: 27.5 x 37.2 cm (10.8 x 14.6 inches)

Inscribed and Dated by the artist (upper right)

Accompanying the sketch is a handwritten message that reads as both personal and poetic:
B'bay/10 june 86/Janabe. Man/ Mulk Sahab
How are you/ may you live long happy healthy/Yours.

This intimate sketch by M. F. Husain, addressed to Mulk Raj Anand, embodies the artist's characteristic economy of line and spontaneous figuration. Executed in swift, gestural strokes, the horse, one of Husain's enduring motifs, appears animated with kinetic energy.

In 1986, the friendship between M.F. Husain and Mulk Raj Anand was defined by a mutual exchange of creative "favours" that bridged the worlds of literature and visual art. Husain paid tribute to Anand by illustrating a limited-edition artist book titled "Mulk Raj Anand: Poetry to be Seen," which featured ten of Husain's silk-screened illustrations alongside Anand's text. In return, Anand, as an influential art critic and founding editor of Marg magazine, continued his lifelong "favour" of providing intellectual legitimacy to Husain's work, famously championing the artist's transition from commercial posters to a modern Indian idiom. Their collaboration during this year was further solidified as Husain began his iconic "British Raj" series, a thematic direction that deeply resonated with Anand's own lifelong literary crusade against colonial structures and social oppression.

Overall the work is in fair condition, with visible age toning, creases, and scattered stain marks across the surface, with minor edge wear.