Nan Hill Artist Statement on Murshid at Suresnes Portrait

When embarking on a portrait, I look for something fundamental about the esteemed person’s character which influences their legacy. With Hazrat Inayat Khan, his capacity for self-discipline came forthrightly to mind. Far from an authoritarian approach, the discipline he required of himself, and modeled as an exemplar for others, developed from his ancestral heritage of classical musicianship. His high-level mastery prepared him for his unique role as the spiritual leader who answered a call to introduce Eastern teachings of Sufism to the West.

For this portrait’s setting, Pir Zia spoke of his grandfather’s favorite tree at the historical home in Suresnes, an apricot tree near a bend in a footpath, under which Murshid would customarily sit in his wicker garden chair. I was given two artistic references for the portrait: the 1905 painting “The Buddha” by Odilon Redon, and the volume The Flower Garden of Inayat Khan, with illustrations done in 1930 by Henriette Willebeek Le Mair, who had often been in Murshid’s presence during his lifetime.

It was important to convey Murshid’s devotion to simplicity, which was expressed in life even in his manner of clothing and adornment. I was fortunate to be in The Hague in the fall of 2019 and visited the Sufi Museum to make personal studies of the matte satin robes hand-made for Murshid and his brothers, their Indian-made shoes, a winged jeweled heart brooch identical to Murshid’s which belonged to his wife Begum Ameena Inayat Khan, and his very garden chair. It was immensely helpful to be alone with his personal artifacts, soaking in the atmosphere they’re held in, which many years after his passing is beautifully redolent of his spiritual grace.

The painting’s composition is elemental. Like “The Buddha”, Murshid is in solitude by his apricot tree in the flowering of early Spring, which symbolizes the cycles of renewal and the regeneration of all that is beautiful, bountiful and creative. We can imagine a gentle stirring of nature and atmosphere around him as he sits in a shrine of stillness, calmly radiating. From Le Mair I drew the focal points of his beautiful posture and the quality of his gaze from Le Mair. In the portrait, Murshid appears to gaze within as he looks out, impressing upon the viewer his mastery of mysticism and inner vision. In his own words Murshid described the alchemy of the mystic and his enduring legacy:

In all he thinks or does there is the perfume of God, which becomes a healing and a blessing. And if one asks how a mystic, who has become so kind and helpful, gets on among the crowd in everyday life, since the rough edges of everyday life rubbing against him must necessarily make him heart sore, the answer is that they certainly do, and the heart of the mystic is even more sore than that of anybody else. Where there is only kindness and patience all the thorns will come. But just as the diamond by being cut becomes brilliant so does the heart; and when the heart has been sufficiently cut it becomes a flame which illuminates not only the life of the mystic, but also that of others.

BIOGRAPHY

Nan Majida Hill, a Minnesota native, was born in 1953. She attended Smith College and earned a degree in painting from UMASS Amherst. Hill is a contemporary realist painter with a long association with a group of realist painters of renown in western Massachusetts. She has exhibited her artwork, mostly still life, in the United States in solo and group exhibitions for over 30 years. Also known for portraiture, Hill has completed official retirement portraits for a first woman First Justice, professors emeriti of Mount Holyoke and Skidmore Colleges, and portrait commissions for film star Matt Damon, the founders of Meditech in Boston and many more. Hill’s paintings are in the collections of Fidelity Investments, Citibank, the Northampton Family & Probate Court, Spoleto Restaurants, and Neil & Jane Pappalardo along with numerous private collections. Hill was honored to recently complete official portraits of Sufi spiritual master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-2017) and WWll spy heroine Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944) for the Astana, headquarters of the Inayatiyya in Richmond, Virginia.

Please see here for Nan Hill’s portrait of Noor Inayat Khan, unveiled in Richmond in September 2018.