This timeline traces the life and work of Francis Newton Souza (1924–2002), mapping the personal losses, political upheavals, and artistic milestones that shaped one of modern India’s most radical and uncompromising painters. Born in colonial Goa and raised between Bombay and Saligao, Souza’s early years were marked by rebellion—against convention, religious orthodoxy, and artistic mediocrity.
Souza forged a deeply autobiographical and globally resonant visual language—charged with eroticism, satire, and spiritual unrest. What unfolds here is not merely a chronology but the making of a modernist in motion.
1924
- Born 12 April in Sonarbhat ward, Saligao, Goa, to Lilia Maria Cecilia Antunes and José Victor Aniceto da Piedade de Souza. Christened Francisco Victor Niuton de Souza at Mae de Deus Church.
- His father, baptized in Assolna, South Goa, belonged to the landed gentry, though little is recorded about his landholdings. After Souza’s birth, his father passed away, followed by his sister in 1925
My mother, my aunts, my grandmother, and all my relatives mourned bitterly, saying God should have taken away the boy and left the girl..As for me, I was a rickety child with a running nose and running ears, and scared of every adult and every other child.Better had I died.
(F.N. Souza, ‘My Friend and I’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
Souza’s Birth Certificate
Credits: Souza: The Artist, His Loves & His Times
1928
- Moves to Bombay with his mother, his first epitome of resilience. She works as a seamstress, anglicizing her name to Lily, and adopts Newton as their surname.
F.N. Souza with mother Lilia Maria Cecilia Antunes
Credits: Photographer unknown
She became such a clever exponent of the sartorial art that she devised an easy system of dressmaking. I took lessons from her in tailoring as a safety measure.
(F.N. Souza, ‘A Fragment of Autobiography’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
1929
- Contracts smallpox and is sent to Goa to live with his maternal grandmother Leopoldina Saldanha who raises him. Begins primary school.
- Goa remains etched in Souza’s mind and canvas.
F.N. Souza, The Red Road, 1962.
Credits: Artist’s Estate
A beautiful country, full of rice fields and palm trees; whitewashed churches with lofty steeples… Glimpses of the blue sea. Red roads curving over hills and straight across paddy fields.
(F.N. Souza, ‘A Fragment of Autobiography’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
- Despite his apparent indifference towards religion, Catholicism and its iconography remained central to his art.
As a child, I was fascinated by the grandeur of the Church and by the stories of tortured saints my grandmother used to tell me.
(F.N. Souza, ‘A Fragment of Autobiography’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
F.N. Souza, Pieta, 1947
Credits: Artist’s Estate
This is a savage work…not that I am a savage but I was brought up in the savagery of a corrupt and outdated medieval religion, the Roman Catholic church in Goa.
(F.N. Souza, Francis Newton Souza: Bridging Western and Indian Modern Art, Aziz Kurtha)
1933
- Returns to Bombay as his mother remarries João José Fernando Flores Ribeiro. Gains half-siblings, Lancelot Belarmino and Marina Flores Ribeiro.
1937
- Enrols at St. Xavier’s High School, Bombay.
As a boy, I had to attend school like any other, the difference being that schoolboys in Bombay were crammed by rote with a wretched system of education, the Macaulay system, intended, as everybody knows, to provide clerks and bureaucrats for maintaining what was a vast Imperial racket.
(F.N. Souza, ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
1939
- Expelled for drawing anatomical sketches on the school lavatory walls.
The Jesuits who ran the school I attended knew I had a talent for drawing. Whenever there was a drawing in the lavatory, I was usually suspected of having done it. When I went to examine it, I would find it badly drawn. I would even correct it. I hate bad drawing.
(F.N. Souza, ‘A Fragment of Autobiography’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
1940
- Joins J.J. School of Art at 16.
F.N. Souza, Female Nude, 1940
Credits: Artist’s Estate.
A drawing made on cardboard showcases Souza’s early mastery of line and form
1942
- Submits works to the Bombay Art Society annually till 1946—rejected every year.
1944
- Bombay, the city of contrasts, became Souza's fixation and artistic inspiration.
F.N. Souza, The Naked Family (Bombay Beggars), 1944
Credits: Artist’s Estate
Bombay, with its rattling trams, tangled wires, blustering officials, and haggling coolies… its clerks in fixed routines, women carrying tiffins, lepers, beggars, and corrupted municipality.
(F.N. Souza, ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
1945
- Expelled from J.J. School of Art for pro-independence activities. Paints The Blue Lady on his mother’s sewing board.
- Exposure to Indian classical art.
F.N. Souza, Untitled (Temple Dancer), 1949
Credits: Artist’s Estate
…the first works of art which inspired Souza were the South Indian bronzes and the high relief carvings on the Khajuraho temples..which he saw in books in the Bombay library.
(Edwin Mullins, Souza, 1962)
- Returns to Goa. Holds first solo exhibition at the Bombay Art Society Salon.
- Hermann Goetz purchases The Blue Lady. Painting Ave Maria bought by Maria Figueiredo.
Recalcitrant boys like me had to be dismissed by principals and directors of educational institutions who instinctively feared we would topple their apple carts.
(Souza, Bombay Art Society Salon 1948 Catalogue)
1946
- Second one-man exhibition at Silverfish Club, Bombay.
1947
- Marries Maria Figueiredo.
Credits: Photographer unknown
- Co-founded the Progressive Artists’ Group
Credits: Wikipedia Public Domain
Progressive Artists’ Group: from left (first row) F.N. Souza, K.H. Ara, H.A. Gade, (second row) M.F. Husain, Sadanand Bakre, S.H. Raza
..the whole output by our native artists lacked inspiration and direction. Ganging up with the best and the most vital among us seemed to be a solution.
(F.N. Souza, Patriot Magazine, 1984)
- In December 1947, three Calcutta Group members, including Prodosh Dasgupta, attended a Bombay Artists’ Aid Centre conference hosted by Rudolph Von Leyden to establish a similar artists' group in the city (Dasgupta, "The Calcutta Group – Its Aims & Objectives," Lalit Kala Contemporary 31)
- Souza’s works feature in Art from India and Pakistan from 2400 B.C. to 1947 A.D., London.
1948
- Third and fourth solo shows at the Bombay Art Society
F.N. Souza, Untitled (Goan Village), 1948
Credits: Artist’s Estate
In those days, I was painting peasants and rural landscapes. I painted the earth and its tillers with broad strokes.
(F.N. Souza, ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
The Family (1947), first titled After Working in the Field All Day We Have No Rice to Eat, featured in Souza’s third solo show at the Bombay Art Society
My last exhibition was damned as communist propaganda by retrogressives. I received several anonymous letters calumniating me as a subversive and amoral unsocial element deserving ostracism. I plead innocent.
(F.N. Souza, Fourth Solo Exhibition Catalogue, Bombay Art Society Salon, 1948)
F.N. Souza, Jealous Lover, 1949
Credits: Artist’s Estate
- A Delhi exhibition on Indian antiquities and classical art shapes his distinct iconography.
- Represented in the Exhibition of Indian Art at Burlington House, London. (Auction Catalogue 2013)
1949
- PAG debuts in Bombay.
- Newton uses Souza, his family name
- Exhibits at the Art Society of India; two Mithuna-inspired works are removed for obscenity. His 6-foot nude self-portrait prompts a studio raid.
Souza styled himself after Errol Flynn, the iconic romantic hero
F.N. Souza, Self-Portrait on Tiled Floor, 1949, Oil on plywood
Credits: Artist’s Estate
The first paintings I did were of Robin Hood, inspired by Errol Flynn in the role..
(F.N. Souza, Souza, Edwin Mullins, 1962)
- Farewell solo show at the Bombay Art Society
- Boards a ship to London
I disembarked at Tilbury on a hot August day in 1949 with £15 in my only suit. I bought paint and brushes with £10, spent the rest on food and rent, and worked hard, hoping for the best. I felt awfully alone in the largest city in the world.
(F.N. Souza, Souza in the 40s, 2018)
1950
- Enrols at the Central School of Art for etching.
- Shares lodgings with Alkazi.
- His first exhibition, Paintings by Souza the Indian Painter, organized by his landlady
When I came to London in 1949... my task was not to get used to the grime or beautiful aspects of London… but [for] the Londoners [to] get used to the grime and beautiful aspects of myself and my art.
(F.N. Souza, Exhibition Catalogue, 2005)
- Maria arrives in London, works as a fitter with a high-fashion designer.
1951
- Souza and Maria’s first child is born.
- Krishna Menon secures his British passport, commissions murals for the Indian Students Bureau, and sponsors a solo show at India House.
- Meets Picasso in Paris
I felt some kind of supernatural, phenomenal power radiate even from his fingertips…
(F.N. Souza, Victor Rangel - Ribeiro Souza: The Artist, His Loves & His Times)
1952
- Receives a French government scholarship to study at École des Beaux-Arts
1953
- Exhibits alongside Picasso at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.
1954
- Exhibits at Galerie Raymond Creuze, Paris.
- Participates in the Venice Biennale with Raza, Jamini Roy, and Amrita Sher-Gil.
- Meets Liselotte Souza (a Czech-Jewish actress) in London. (name as requested by the family)
Liselotte Souza and F.N. Souza.
Credits: Photographer Unkown, Public Domain
Year Unknown: Exposure and enamourment to Kafka
- Franz Kafka and Liselotte Souza, German-speaking Jews from Prague, shared the same cultural background.
1955
- Souza’s essay Nirvana of a Maggot first published in Stephen Spender’s Encounter, reflects Kafkaesque themes. Gains prominence as a writer and painter.
What was I originally? I was a blooming maggot on a dung heap.
(F.N. Souza, Nirvana of a Maggot, Words and Lines, 1959)
- First solo show at Musgrave’s Gallery One, London
- Moves in with Liselotte, both involved in London’s Bohemian scene.
- Paints Birth, depicting Liselotte pregnant with their first child, Keren SouzaKohn.
F.N. Souza, Birth, 1955
Credits: Artist’s Estate
- Paints Insect, reminiscent of Kafka’s Metamorphosis
F.N. Souza, Insect, 1955
Credits: Artist’s Estate
- Paints The Lovers
F.N. Souza, The Lovers, 1955
I wanted to hang myself on the cross with my hands and feet nailed to it... to have arrows quivering in my neck like flies, while in the sweetness of love-making…
(F.N. Souza, ‘My Friend and I’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
1956
- Second solo show at Gallery One.
- Liselotte gives birth to Keren SouzaKohn: on the same day as Souza’s show at Gallery One.
Francis and Liselotte Souza with Keren SouzaKohn
Credits: Ida Kar
So you were born on an auspicious day Karen. People talked about you the day you were born. You are famous! For me, it was a lovely feeling - the feelings of a proud father!
(Souza’s letter to Keren SouzaKohn on her birthday, 1980, Reproduced in Catalogue 2013)
- Harold Kovner discovers Souza’s Mystic Repast (1953) at Iris Clert Gallery and becomes Souza’s patron, acquiring 200+ works in four years.
F.N. Souza, Mystic Repast, 1953
Credits: Artist's Estate
- Souza draws portraits of Igor Stravinsky and Louis Armstrong —shared admiration for music with Liselotte
F.N. Souza, Louis Armstrong, 1956
Credits: Artist's Estate
F.N. Souza, Igor Stravinsky, 1956
Credits: Artist's Estate
1957
- Third solo show at Gallery One.
- Paints Nude Metamorphosed into Insect
F.N. Souza, Nude Metamorphosed into Insect, 1957
Credits: Artist’s Estate
- His painting Portrait of an Indian Philosopher wins a prize in the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition.
F.N. Souza, Portrait of an Indian Philosopher, 1957
Credits: Artist’s Estate
F.N. Souza, Negro in Mourning, 1957
Credits: Artist's Estate
- Paints Negro in Mourning - a year before the Notting Hill race riots. The work reveals Souza’s sharp insight into racial discrimination.
- Second child is born.
1958
- Represents Great Britain at the Guggenheim International Award, New York.
1959
- Fourth solo show at Gallery One.
- Publishes Words and Lines, acknowledging his mother Lily and Liselotte’s support
- Souza’s St. Sebastian, The Pope with His Cousins, and his Pope series—some influenced by Bacon’s After Velázquez—reflect familiarity with Catholicism rather than antagonism.
F.N. Souza, Untitled (St. Sebastian), circa 1955
Credits: Artist’s Estate
The Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services. The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolising the accouterment of Christ's passion.
(F.N. Souza, ‘A Fragment of Autobiography’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
- Paints another rendition of Insect
F.N. Souza, Untitled (Insect), 1959
1960
- Paints The Lovers at the height of his relationship with Liselotte, marking a stylistic shift.
F.N. Souza, The Lovers, 1960
Credits: Artist's Estate
The pseudo-autobiographical portrait presents a couple in tender embrace. While the male figure could perhaps represent the artist, his companion may well be modelled on Liselotte Kristian, who was Souza’s partner at the time and featured in many of his paintings from the period.
(South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art Catalogue, 2024)
- Visits Rome on an Italian scholarship; palette shifts to reds, golds, greens, and bronzes, echoing Rome’s stained glass windows.
F.N. Souza, Rome, 1960
Credits: Artist's Estate
- Paints portrait of poet Ezra Pound
F.N. Souza, Ezra Pound, 1960
Credits: Artist's Estate
Met Ezra Pound in his rooms, in his ruins. Then he rose and put on thick glasses, to take a good look at me. I am sure he saw Dante's inferno in my pock-marked face or the backside of the moon...
(F.N. Souza, Edwin Mullins, Souza, London, 1962)
1961
- Sixth solo show at Gallery One—6,000 visitors attend.
- Paints Night Landscape, depicting Belsize Park, where he lived with Liselotte—post-war angst replaces Goan landscapes.
F.N. Souza, Night Landscape, 1961
Credits: Artist's Estate
-
Paints Oedipus Rex - an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles
F.N. Souza, Oedipus Rex, 1961
Credits: Artist's Estate
-
Paints Portrait of John Russell, key art and theatre critic in 1960s London
F.N. Souza, Portrait of John Russell, 1961
Credits: Artist’s Estate
1962
- Third child is born
- Souza by Edwin Mullins published. Contains drawings of Liselotte
Credits: Edwin Mullins, Souza, 1962
Artist’s Estate
F.N. Souza, Portrait of L.K., 1956
Credits: Edwin Mullins, Souza, 1962
Artist’s Estate
- Paints Young Ladies in Belsize Park, inspired by Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907.
F.N. Souza, Young Ladies in Belsize Park, 1962
Credits: Artist's Estate
- Liselotte and Souza purchase a four-storied house in Belsize Square
1963
- Solo exhibition at Taj Gallery, Bombay—his first in the city in 15 years
1964
- First show at Grosvenor Gallery, The Human and Divine Predicament.
- Exhibition of Drawings: Delacroix to Souza, Grosvenor Gallery
For a decade or so, you gave me great joy, Liselotte.
(F.N. Souza’s Letter to Liselotte, 1980, Reproduced in Catalogue, 2015)
1965
- Marries Barbara Zinkant; visits India and reunites with his mother.
- Indian Painting Now traveling exhibition begins.
- Tate Modern acquires Two Saints in a Landscape.
F.N. Souza, Two Saints in a Landscape, 1961
Credits: Artist's Estate
1966
- Starts Souza Kalam.
- Grosvenor Gallery exhibits Black Art and Other Paintings.
- Illustrates the cover for Inner Circle by Jerzy Peterkiewicz.
1967
- Moves to the U.S.
- One-man exhibition at Dhoomimal Gallery.
1968
- Influenced by the New York graffiti art scene, experiments with Spray Painting
F.N. Souza, Untitled (Bust of a Man), 1968
Credits: Artist’s Estate
F.N. Souza, Metamorphosis, 1968
Credits: Artist’s Estate
-
First solo show at London Arts Gallery, Detroit.
1969
-
Experiments with chemical alterations in drawing.
F.N. Souza, Untitled (Portrait), 1994
Credits: Artist’s Estate
1971
-
Birth of his son, Patrick.
1972 - 74
- A joie de vivre period, inspired by his newborn son. Vibrant colors define his 'lyrical expressionism.'1974: Exhibition of drawings at Davis Ellis-Jones Gallery, London
1975
- Maria exhibits Souza’s work at Arts 38.
- Solo show at Dhoomimal Gallery.
1976
- One-man exhibitions at Dhoomimal Gallery and Arts 38.
- Attends an artists’ camp in Goa with M.F. Husain and Ram Kumar.
1977
- Included in Commonwealth Artists of Fame at the Commonwealth Institute, London.
1982
- Exhibits at the Festival of India in Britain, including Contemporary Indian Art (Royal Academy) and India: Myth and Reality (MoMA Oxford), as well as Modern Indian Paintings (Hirshhorn Museum, D.C.)
F.N. Souza, Portrait of Uma and Ravi Jain, 1982
Credits: Artist’s Estate
1983
- Souza in the Forties Retrospective at Dhoomimal Gallery.
Credits: Dhoomimal Gallery
1984
- Exhibitions at Arts 38, London.
1985
- Exhibits at Visual Arts East-West Encounter, Bombay.
- New Poems by F.N Souza, Dedicated to Women is published.
- Exhibits at the Pundole Gallery, Mumbai.
1986
- Kala Mela, Dhoomimal Gallery Retrospective.
The Jain Family at Kala Mela
Credits: Artist’s Estate
- Created works inspired by Matisse
F.N. Souza, Untitled (Nude after Henri Matisse), 1986
Credits: Artist’s Estate
John Minton committed suicide because Matisse and Picasso had done everything there’s to be done in art. Unfortunately, he had not heard of me. Otherwise, he might have been alive today.
(F.N. Souza, ‘Notes From My Diary’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
1987
- Group exhibition: Coups de Coeur, Geneva
1988
- Show held at the Indus Gallery, Karachi
1993
- Souza: 1940s–1990s retrospective at Dhoomimal Gallery.
- Tate Modern acquires Crucifixion (1959)
F.N. Souza, Crucifixion, 1959
Credits: Artist’s Estate
Sir, have you hung on a cross and suffered the unbearable torments of crucifixion with your limbs stretched out to breaking point... breaking?
(F.N. Souza, ‘My Friend and I’, Words and Lines, Villiers, London, 1959)
1994
- One-man show at Indus Gallery, Karachi Souza, Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi.
1995
- The Chemicals of Souza, LTG Gallery, New Delhi
1996
- Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi.
- The Acrylics of Souza, LTG Gallery, New Delhi.
- Souza from the Alkazi Collection, Academy of Fine Arts & Literature, New Delhi
- The Modern Inaugural Show, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.
1997
- One-man show at Julian Hartnoll Gallery, London.
- Six Modern Masters, Kumar Gallery, New Delhi
1998
- One-man show at BosePacia Modern Gallery, New York.
- Awarded the Kalidas Samman by the Madhya Pradesh Government
2002
- Passes away on March 28 in Mumbai.
Death comes when nature needs one’s atoms elsewhere! Death is atomization.
(F.N. Souza, Aphorisms 21st Century, The Sayings of F.N. Souza, Asia Art Archive)
