London: Maqbool Fida Husain, who rose from a Bollywood billboard artist to become India’s most celebrated painter worldwide, died here on Thursday, away from home on a self-imposed exile.
India’s very own ‘Picasso’, who earned both fame and wrath for his paintings, died a Qatari citizen at the Royal Brompton Hospital here where he was admitted after being in “indifferent health” for the last one-and-a-half month.
The legendary Husain breathed his last at 2.30 am local time (0700 IST) at the age of 95. He will be buried in London on Friday after his son Shamshad arrives here from New Delhi.
India’s biggest grosser as a painter with his works fetching astronomical sums in auctions in London and New York, Husain turned away from his homeland in 2006 following a series of legal cases and death threats over his depiction of Hindu goddesses in nude.
He accepted Qatari citizenship in 2010 after surrendering his Indian passport. (PTI