India Temples No. 2 (Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Tiruchirapalli), 1954 (February)

Congdon was based in Venice throughout the 1950s. His energetic visions of the city established his reputation among American collectors. However, his growing interior conflicts led him to travel compulsively, searching for both inspiration and answers to his personal troubles. Eventually these found relief when Congdon converted to Catholicism in 1958.

Even before the conversion several aspects of Congdon’s work prefigured his spiritual inclination: above all the concern with light (with the related use of gold paint) and the concentration on religious sites. The paintings of Hindu temples made in February 1954 at Sri Ranganathaswamy, south west of Chennai, are exemplary.