Photograph of George Harrison meeting with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India in 1968.

From the portfolio "Pattie Boyd and The Beatles in Rishikesh".

This never before exhibited photograph was published for the first time in 2018 along with 16 others for this portfolio.

From press release: Pattie Boyd: During her ten-year marriage to George Harrison, Pattie Boyd was a prominent member of the Beatles’ inner circle and enjoyed the kind of access to the group that only a handful of people would ever know. Boyd introduced Harrison to Transcendental Meditation in August 1967, and she accompanied the Beatles the following year when they made their historic trek to Rishikesh, a small town near the foothills of the Himalayas. Well known as a religious center that has attracted yogis and gurus for centuries, Rishikesh was home to the ashram of TM’s progenitor, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

“The few photographs Pattie has exhibited of Rishikesh represent documentary photography at its finest,” Dr. Michael DeMarsche, an art consultant who is handling all enquiries into the purchase of the portfolio, told Best Classic Bands. “Last summer, I asked Pattie if she had taken any additional photographs of the Beatles in Rishikesh. I was shocked when she showed me so many. None of them had been exhibited. We felt they needed to be seen together and decided to compile a portfolio. This makes it far easier and affordable for private collectors and museums to purchase and exhibit them.”

Boyd and Harrison arrived in Rishikesh on Feb. 15, 1968, accompanied by her sister, Jenny, and John and Cynthia Lennon. Paul McCartney and his then-girlfriend, Jane Asher, arrived with Ringo and Maureen Starr on Feb. 19.

When she photographed the Beatles at the Maharishi’s secluded compound, Boyd’s intimate relationship with the group allowed her to move around freely and unobtrusively. Her presence with a camera was hardly noticed by the Beatles and their entourage of wives and close friends. The result is a body of photographs that provide a unique and penetrating gaze into the daily life of the Beatles while living in the Maharishi’s camp.

“You have to understand that the Maharishi vigilantly guarded the Beatles’ privacy,” said DeMarsche. “The international press was rarely allowed in the compound. The photographs of George, John and Cynthia Lennon with the Maharishi were taken during private lectures, which he seldom granted. Who else but Pattie Boyd could have taken photographs during these extraordinarily intimate moments? Pattie’s photographs are the only ones I know that provide such a candid view of the Beatles’ private world in Rishikesh. There is nothing like them. There are so many unguarded moments in these photographs. They contain the kind of insights that only a true Beatles insider could have revealed.” There was also music. The output of songs written by the Beatles while there was prolific. A number of them surfaced on Abbey Road in 1969. But the majority of Rishikesh songs formed the heart of the album recorded when they returned, acknowledged to be one of their most experimental, The Beatles – commonly referred to as The White Album.

Photograph measures 16" x 20 sheet.

Hand signed Pattie Boyd.

Bears the blindstamp for Pattie Boyd Collection.

Edition 6/50.

Matted size 20 3/4" x 24 1/2".

Hinge mounted.

Excellent condition.


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