Renowned Indian painter Maqbool Fida Hussain, who lived the last five years of his life in exile, died of heart attack in London on Thursday morning. He was 95.According to agency reports, Hussain died at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital at 2.30 am.

 

In his long and illustrious career as a painter, M F Hussain brought global recognition to Indian art. He was even described by Forbes magazine as the “Picasso of India”. He was doubtlessly the highest earning painter of India, with one painting of his even fetching $2 million at a Christie’s auction.

However, in the mid 1990s Hussain angered a section of Hindu community by painting the nude images of Hindu goddesses.

 

Beleaguered with legal cases and even death threats, Maqbool Fida Hussain went into a self imposed exile in 2006 and never returned to India again. In January 2010, he even accepted the citizenship of Qatar.

But in one of his last interviews, Hussain said that his heart would always remain in India.

 

M.F Hussain also directed a few Hindi films — Gajagamini and Meenaxi – A Tale of Three Cities with actresses Madhuri Dixit and Tabu respectively. His cinematic style was often criticized as too poetically theatrical. Hussain also painted the canvases of Madhuri Dixit — his muse for a long time — and Tabu and Amrita Rao.

May his soul rest in peace.