Bidspirit auction | GANDHI MAHATMA: (1869-1948) A wonderful

GANDHI MAHATMA: (1869-1948) A wonderful signed photograph of Gandhi, captured on his birthday in 1944 - GANDHI MAHATMA: (1869-1948) Indian political and spiritual leader during the Indian independence movement. An excellent vintage signed 4.75 x 5.75 photograph of Gandhi in a head and shoulders pose outdoors, with his familiar white robe draped over his shoulders, looking slightly downwards as he signs autographs on the occasion of his birthday at Pune on 2nd October 1944. Photograph by Kanu Gandhi and signed by him in black ink to the verso, also adding Copy Right in his hand. Signed twice by Gandhi in blue fountain pen ink to a light area at the base of the image, firstly in Gujarati and a second time ( ´M. K. Gandhi´ ) in Roman script. Lightly hinged at the upper edge of the verso to an oblong folio page removed from an album. An exceptionally fine signed image. VG Kanu Gandhi (1917-1986) Indian photographer, a grandnephew of Mahatma Gandhi who lived with him in several of his ashrams and was a member of his personal staff. Gandhi allowed Kanu to photograph him on three conditions: that he use no flash, that he never be asked to pose, and that his photography would not be funded by the Ashram. A slightly larger example of the same image exists in which three other individuals can be seen, two of them identified as Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Sohoraben (an ashramite). Provenance: From an album which was previously part of a private autograph collection formed by an Antiquarian Bookseller in Prague during the 1960s.