A predominantly yellow, orange and black painting of sunset by Kerala's late art genius Edmund Thomas Clint has an interesting backgrounder largely unknown to the public, who are all the same fascinated by the artwork at the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) here.
As the exhibition of the boy prodigy's select works completes a month today, the newly-opened gallery continues to clock a steady stream of visitors at the historical Jew Town otherwise known for its shops selling ethnic exotica.
79-year-old K J Augustin remembers Clint's weekly visits to his house in coastal Kochi in the late 1970s.
"I used to take him around," he says about the prodigy who went on to do no less than 25,000 pictures before his death in 1983 one month short of turning seven.
He remembers Clint being at his house one evening,looking out silently through a window that opened to the sky.The sight of the four-year-old sitting and watching nature for long caught the attention of chief hostess Saramma Augustin, who asked him what he was watching.
When Clint replied it was the sunset, she said half jokingly "Then why don't you paint a picture of it and gift me?"
Next weekend, Clint was back with an artwork.The tiny tot had reproduced the past week's sight "in greater glory" recounts Augustin, who had worked with the boy's father M T Joseph at Central Institute of Fisheries Technology at Wellingdon Island here.
"This is no ordinary work for his age,"notes senior artist Balan Nambiar, about the painting whose high-quality print is now on display among 60 others of Clint at the exhibition, being held as part of the Children's Biennale of KMB'14.
Joseph noted with gratitude his late colleague G Madhavan's role in spotting Clint's talent when he was about a year old, with a post script to the 'sunset painting' story.
"When Saramma received the gift, she asked Clint "What if I tell the world that this is my son's painting?' At this, the boy asked her to return it. Only to soon give it back,but after scribbling his name 'Clint' on one corner of the work.
