Museum-grade recreation · archival canvas · hand-finished · deep-zoom on request
Commission by request — licensed
The Rickshaw Puller
Tyeb Mehta · 1925–2009A straining figure hauls against the diagonal in Mehta's spare, anguished language of flat colour and severed form. The labouring body carries the weight of Partition and the human cost of modern India.
Did you know
Mehta's canvases repeatedly broke Indian auction records; his Diagonal series turned a single tensioned line into a symbol of a nation's trauma.
This modern master remains in copyright. We recreate it only under licence or estate permission — begin with a private enquiry and our curators will handle the rights.
The Story
Tyeb Mehta was an Indian painter, sculptor and film maker.
He was part of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group and the first post-colonial generation of artists in India, like John Wilkins who also broke free from the nationalist Bengal school and embraced Modernism instead, with its Post-Impressionist colours, cubist forms and brusque, expressionistic styles.
The Full Story
Full analysis
Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009) returned repeatedly to the rickshaw and its puller as a metaphor for bonded human labour; the best-documented example is a 2002 acrylic-on-canvas work. Mehta's mature 'Diagonal Series' emerged around 1969-70 from an accidental discovery of a stark black line flung across a canvas, becoming an instrument of fracturing violence: the human body is broken into sharp, intersecting planes of colour. Mehta explicitly rejected sentimental readings, describing the rickshaw as a metaphor for bondage, its wheels and shafts a harness image for constant everyday suffering — consistent with his lifelong engagement with images of violence (the sacrificial bull, the goddess Kali). The eye is directed by intersecting colour planes toward the point of maximum compression — the puller's straining back — with flat, unmodulated colour fields refusing illusionistic depth.
Technique & materials
Acrylic on canvas, a departure from the oils of Mehta's earlier career, suited to the flatter, harder-edged colour planes of his Diagonal Series. The signature diagonal fracture required careful masking or precise brush control to keep colour-field edges crisp.
Provenance
The best-documented Rickshaw Puller (acrylic on canvas, 2002, 149.9 x 90.2 cm) passed through the collection of Mumbai collector Amrita Jhaveri before its first sale at Saffronart, December 2006. Held privately before returning to auction at Saffronart's Curated Auction Series, April 2021, selling for ₹20.59 crore (~$2.86 million). Exhibited at Celebration of Colours, Jehangir Art Gallery (2002) and Concept and Form, Vadehra Art Gallery (2004).
Conservation history
No publicly documented major conservation treatment or condition issue is recorded; as a 2002 acrylic work in well-tracked private ownership, it has not faced the aging risks of earlier oil-on-canvas Indian modernist works.
In dialogue with
The Heirloom
Each recreation is a strictly limited edition of twenty-five, hand-finished on archival canvas and issued with a signed Certificate of Authenticity carrying its own unique Heirloom №.
Explore the world of this masterwork
Before you commission
Is this the original The Rickshaw Puller?+
No — this is a museum-grade, entirely hand-finished recreation of The Rickshaw Puller by Tyeb Mehta, faithful to the original in scale, palette and brushwork. The original remains in a public collection; yours is made, by private commission, to hang on your own walls.
How is each piece made?+
Every commission is hand-finished on archival canvas, framed to order, and issued with a signed Certificate of Authenticity carrying a unique Heirloom №. Materials, size and finish are chosen with you during a private viewing.
How long does a commission take?+
Typically 30–45 days from confirmation. We take a 50% advance to begin the work, with the balance due on completion, followed by white-glove delivery.
What does The Rickshaw Puller cost?+
Commissions for this masterwork begin from ₹50,000. Final pricing depends on the size and finish you choose, confirmed during your private viewing.
Kindred masterworks
Continue the viewing.
Own The Rickshaw Puller, recreated to museum grade. ArtzFolio ∞ Infinity reproduces The Rickshaw Puller by Tyeb Mehta, on hand-primed archival canvas, finished by the hand of our atelier and numbered as a strictly limited Heirloom edition (Heirloom № 4173). Available in your chosen dimensions, frame and finish, from ₹50,000, delivered across India with white-glove care. Mehta's canvases repeatedly broke Indian auction records; his Diagonal series turned a single tensioned line into a symbol of a nation's trauma.
See more from Tyeb Mehta and the world of Indian Modernism, or search the Infinity Archive for every related masterpiece. Ready to begin? Request a private viewing and reserve your Heirloom № in your name.
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