Author/Artist :Dharmendra RathoreTitle :Dharmendra RathoreSize :60 x 72 inches
This painting presents a haunting juxtaposition of innocence and turmoil. In the foreground, a young girl in a delicate white dress and crown rides a wooden rocking horse, her gentle face turned toward the viewer with a mixture of vulnerability and quiet strength. The softness of her figure and attire contrasts starkly with the chaotic, almost nightmarish backdrop behind her. The background is filled with distorted, ghostly human-like figures in twisted postures, their forms merging into one another as if locked in perpetual conflict or anguish. Their jagged, skeletal outlines and deep shadows evoke a sense of violence and unrest, a stark counterpoint to the child’s fragile calmness.
The imagery suggests the fragile bubble of childhood innocence set against the brutal weight of history, conflict, or collective trauma. The rocking horse, a symbol of play and imagination, becomes unsettling in this context, almost like a fragile defense against overwhelming forces. The entire composition radiates tension, leaving the viewer to contemplate the uneasy coexistence of purity and destruction, memory and imagination.