CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the present research work titled RENAISSANCE IN

INDIAN ART (1900-1947) has been conducted by Ms Monika Srivastava and is

the original work of the researcher. I wish her success in all her present and

future endeavours.

Prof. P.K. Srivastava

Supervisor & Head,

Department of Western History,

University of Lucknow,

Lucknow

DECLARATION

I Monika Srivastava, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis

RENAISSANCE IN INDIAN ART (1900-1947) has been solely carried out by

me and is not submitted at any other University or to any examining body in

India or abroad. I am solely responsible for the content of the present thesis.

Date:

Place: Monika Srivastava

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to my

Supervisor, Professor Pramod Kumar Srivastava, Head, Department of

Western History, University of Lucknow, for his invaluable guidance and

constant support. I have been extremely fortunate to have an advisor who

helped me to explore the topic of my research in depth. His patience and

support enabled me to overcome many critical situations and finish this

thesis. I would like to thank him for encouraging me to research this topic

and for facilitating my growth as a researcher. I am deeply indebted to him

for the lengthy discussions that helped me sort out the details of my work.

Professor Srivastava’s insightful comments and constructive criticism at

different stages of my research were thought-provoking and helped me focus

my ideas.

I am extremely grateful to Professor P. Rajiv Nayan, Dean, Faculty of

Fine Arts, University of Lucknow, for having allowed me to have

unrestricted access to literature at the Library of the College of Arts.

I am equally thankful to the staff of various library like- Lalit Kala

Academy, Kaiserbagh and the Lalit Kala Publication Division, Aliganj, Arts

College, Tagore Library, University of Lucknow, State Museum, Lucknow,

Jahangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Indian Museum, Kolkatta and Prince of

Wales Museum (Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) Mumbai.

My sincere thanks to Mr. Manav Prakash of Universal Bookseller,

Hazratganj, Lucknow for helping me in arranging the books in due course of

time and in collecting my research material.

I would like to express my gratitude towards my colleagues at A.P.Sen

Memorial Girls College, Lucknow, especially Principal, Dr. Vinita Singh, for

their kind co-operation and encouragement which helped me complete this

project.

A special thanks to my family. My family has been a constant source

of love, concern, support and strength all these years. I would like to express

my heart-felt gratitude to my family. Words cannot express how grateful I am

to my mother Mrs Vinodini Srivastava, and my father, Mr R. B. Srivastava,

for their blessings and support. My brother Mukul Srivastava (Chief Manager

Economist, Union Bank of India) provided me emotional support throughout

my journey and always guided me to stay focused on my study. It would not

have been possible for me to complete this thesis without the help, at every

stage, given by my sister, Vartika. In spite of her preoccupation with her

work, she helped in the typing, editing and finalising of several drafts.

Lastly, I would also like to thank all of my friends who supported me,

exhorted me to complete the thesis which had been delayed considerably due

to certain unavoidable circumstances.

Date:

Place: Monika Srivastava

CHAPTER CONTENT PAGE NO

I

Art : Origin and Meaning 1-58

1:1

What is Art? 3-14

1:2

What is Painting 14-20

1:2:1

Western Paintings 20-29

1:2:1:1 Pre-historic 20

1:2:1:2 Egypt 20

1:2:1:3 Aegean 21-22

1:2:1:4 Greece 22

1:2:1:5 Roman 22-23

1:2:1:6 Medieval Ages 23-26

1:2:1:7 15th Century 26-29

1:3

Origins of Renaissance Art

29-32

1:3:1 16th Century 32-34

1:3:2 Michael Angelo 34-35

1:3:3 Raphael 35-37

1:3:4 Mannerism, Baroque and Rococo 37-38

1:3:5 Baroque 38

1:3:6 Rococo 38-39

1:3:7 Neo-classical 39-40

1:3:8 Romanticism 40-41

1:3:9 Realism 41-42

1:3:10 Impressionism 42-43

1:3:11 Post-Impressionism 43-44

1:3:12 Modernism 44-45

1:3:13 Post Modernism 45-46

1:3:14 Indian Paintings 46-51

1:3:15 Mughal School 51-58

II Colonial Painting-I 59-124

2:1

Company School of Painting 70-78

2:1:1 Madras 78-79

2:1:2 Tanjore 79-80

2:1:3 Murshidabad 80-83

2:1:4 Calcutta 83-86

2:1:5 Lucknow 86-90

2:1:6 Patna 90-96

2:1:7 Benaras 96-98

2:1:8 Delhi and Agra 98-101

2:2 Fine Art Education in India and Raja

Ravi Varma 102-124

2:2:1 Fine Art Education in India 102-106

2:2:2 Raja Ravi Varma 106-124

III Colonial Painting-II 125-242

3:1 E.B. Havel and Changing Art

Traditional in India 125-131

3:2 Abanindra Nath Tagore, Nationalism

and painting in colonial Bengal 132-153

3:2:1 Personal life and background of

Abanindra Nath Tagore 132-138

3:2:2 The paintings of Abanindranth Tagore 138-147

3:2:3 Abanidranath Tagore and "the Bengal

School" 147-153

3:3 Nandlal Bose 154-173

3:3:1 Nandalal Bose’s association with

Mahatma Gandhi 173-185

3:3:2

Search for Individual Identity Avant

Garde 185-189

3:4 Individual Styles 189-242

3:4:1 Gaganendranath Tagore 189-199

3:4:2 Rabindranath Tagore 199-214

3:4:3 Jamani Roy 214-226

3:4:4 Amrita Sher Gil 226-242

IV Post Colonial Painting 243-310

4:1 Pre Independence Art Trends 243

4:2 Gladstone Solomon and the

developments in Bombay 243-250

4:3 Developments in Calcutta 250-251

4:4 Developments In Madras 251-252

4:5 Developments in Lahore 252-253

4:6 Developments in Lucknow 253-254

4:7 Art in Bengal During 1940 and

Formation of Calcutta Group 254-265

4:8 Calcutta Group 265-282

4:9 Progressive Art Group Bombay 283-296

4:10 Bombay Group 296-298

4:11 Delhi Silpi Chakra 298-310

V Conclusion 311-335

Bibliography 336-351

Annexure

Plates I-XXVI

PREFACE

The world is full of all the colours of life, all the colours that are

present in the rainbow. The different colours in the rainbow depict

different moods. Everywhere there is a movement and change is

manifested in the form of different seasons. Works of art were created

many thousand years before the invention of writing. Thus these works of

art are our chief source of information about pre-historic and ancient

people. Art is the best mode of expression of one’s mental and emotional

state. The present work is divided into five chapters.

The first chapter describes in detail what is art, paintings during the

pre colonial, the western period, origin of renaissance art and the works

undertaken by Michael Angelo, Raphel, Mannersism, Baroque, Rococo

and the changes witnessed in Indian paintings.

The second chapter is about the Company School of paintings

developed in Madras, Tanjore, Murshidabad, Calcutta, Lucknow etc., fine

art education in India and efforts undertaken by Raja Ravi Verma.

The third chapter contains a description of colonial painting and the

role of E. B. Havel, Abanindranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore, Nandlal

Bose, Jamini Roy, Gagendranath Tagore and Amrita Sher-Gil.

The fourth chapter contains the details of the post colonial paintings

and pre-independence art trends.

The fifth chapter is a conclusion and a summary of the previous

chapters. The plates in the annexure depict the paintings of various

periods.

The realization of problems of immense magnitude that came with

the themes for serious paintings, the introduction of new and meaningful

content into the creative expression of the artists of the time, the role of

artists and renewal of forms are sought to be examined in this thesis.

Chapter-I

Art: Origin and Meaning

1

Art: Origin and Meaning

The earth is a beautiful place for man to live. We can find all

beauties of life under an ever-changing sky. The world is full of all the

colours of life, all the colours that are present in the sun. There are

different colours in the sun which depict different moods. Everywhere

there is a movement and changes in the form of different seasons. These

movements and changes helped man to become civilized.

There is a close relation between man and nature. During pre-

historic times, man was fully dependent on nature for his basic needs, for

nature provides food when man is hungry; it provided shelter when needed

(in the form of caves or rock-shelters). It gives warmth and light in the

form of the sun, water in the form of rain. Science and technology were

not known during the pre-historic period. Science was the latest

development in human history, so it had little meaning to mankind. Man

has been in love with nature for a long time and he has found nature to

have a special kind of human relationship. Because of this attitude art

derives itself from being a part of nature.

One of the most primitive impulses in man is the urge to make

patterns; in other words, to create something which appeals to the eyes and

through which he can express himself, his feelings, his thought his

2

customs etc. As soon as the basic requirements of food and shelter have

been satisfied, we find that a human being starts adoring his surroundings.

Moved by the charm of nature man tries to express his appreciation for it

in the form of art.

Even during the pre-historic period, art had its influence on man.

We can find evidence of art in the pre-historic age in the caves all over the

world, for example, Altamira in North Spain,1 Niaux near Tarascon-en-

Ariege2. These caves give us some of the finest examples of the art of that

period. Though, man, still in a savage state, was able to express himself in

the medium of painting or engraving.

Works of art were created many thousand years before the invention

of writing. Thus these works of art were our chief source of information

concerning pre-historic and ancient people. The most primitive decoration

is usually produced by simple and appropriate technique. ―The oldest

human art probably consisted of floral gathering, found objects and skin

marking.‖3

According to an ancient legend, ―the first drawing was done by

tracing the shadows cast by a figure. Another possible origin is that some

natural stain was found to have a vague resemblance to a figure, and was

1 Burkitt, M. C.,The Old Stone Age, Rupa and Co. India, 1962, p. 158.

2 Ibid. 154

3 Wilson, Frank Avray, Art and Understanding, London, 1963, p.7.

3

touched up to enhance the likeness. Similarly, a stone or a piece of wood

may have been found to suggest a human or an animal form and later

other stones or pieces of wood were deliberately carved into similar

forms.‖4

But as civilization advanced, man tried to imitate more complex

techniques which resulted in, or we can say were responsible for, the birth

of painting, sculpture and architecture.

1:1 What is Art?

What is art: The question, though in appearance simple, is quite

formidable. When we ask an ordinary person this question he generally

replies that art is architecture, sculpture, painting, music and poetry in all

its forms, or, all those things that produce beauty is ‗art‘.

With the advancement of civilization, the meaning of the word ‗art‘

has become more complex. Today art has so many aspects, serves so

many purposes such as decorative, creative, religious, spiritual,

philosophical, etc., that it is very difficult to describe it in one sense.

There are different opinions regarding the definition of art. Some

philosophers say that art is something spiritual. They relate art with God.

A philosopher like Plato says that ‗art is imitation‘. According to him,

4 Chamat Mary, Osborne Malcolm and others, The Arts,paintings,the graphic arts, sculpture and

architecture, London, undated, p. 23

4

God alone is a creator because he creates the form, the ideal bed,

craftsmen and artists are not strictly speaking creators but imitators.‖ 5

Plato regards art ―as the copy of a copy, the appearance of an appearance

and the language he generally uses for his theory of art is imitation or

mimesis.‖6

Aristotle says that ―art imitates nature.‖ For nature, to Aristotle is

not the outward world of created things; it is the creative force, the

productive principle of the universe.‖7

Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle say that art is imitation,

imitation of nature. Plato says that God created everything, all the beauty

of the world is created by God; men only copy those things. So he

considers art merely to be a copy. Aristotle says that art is imitation of

nature. In other words, man is copying nature. But it is not true because art

is something creative. It involves the artist imagining his view regarding

the object. If art was only imitation, then photography would have been

the most efficient medium for imitation. Therefore, there would have

been no need of any other form of art. No other form of art can reproduce

nature as accurately as the camera does. Two people painting a scene from

5 .Lodge, R. C. ,Plato’s Theory of Art, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1953, p.167.

6 Read Herbert, Art and Society, Faber and Faber, London, 1956, p. 101.

7 . Butcher, Aristotle’s Theory of Poetry & Fine Art, Ludhiana, 1972, p.116.

5

the same spot would produce different paintings because it would depend

on the mood of the artist how he visualizes the scene. Although it is true

that the artist draws his primary inspiration from nature, he does not

merely reproduce nature. He gives a restatement to Nature by his creative

imagination. Therefore, art is not merely imitation of nature but it reflects

the mind of the artist, how his eyes have seen or how his heart has felt. Art

is a combination of both—Nature and the soul of the artist.

Some philosopher said that art is spiritual in essence and can be

understood only by spiritual people.

Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) said:

―Art…. belongs to the outward man…. That he should behold

God‘s wonder and great hidden wisdom and praise God in all

his works. If the outward man learneth no art then he is most

near to a beast which knoweth not what the substance of all

substance is…. Indeed the divine wisdom standeth not in art….

But it showeth art the way, what it should do and how it should

seek. Art is really the tool or instrument of God where with the

divine wisdom worketh or laboureth; why should I despise it?

The deeper a man is taught of God concerning God the deeper

he seeketh into God‘s deeds of wonder in art; for all profitable

arts are revealed or manifested out of God‘s wisdom for the

government of the outward life and for the glorious

manifestation of the divine wisdom and omnipotence.‖8

According to Hegel (1770-1831) God manifests himself in nature

and in art in the form of beauty. God expresses himself in two ways; in the

object and in the subject—in nature and in spirit. Beauty is the shining of

8 Bulley, Margaret H. ,Art and Understanding, London, 1937, p. 149.

6

the Idea through matter. Only the soul and what pertains to it is truly

beautiful and, therefore, the beauty of nature is only the reflection of the

natural beauty of the spirit—the beautiful has only a spiritual content. But

the spiritual must appear in sensuous form. The sensuous manifestation of

the spirit is only appearance (schein), and this appearance is the only

reality of the beautiful. Art is thus the production of this appearance of the

idea, and is a means, together with religion and philosophy, of bringing to

consciousness, and expressing the deepest problems of humanity and the

highest truths of the spirit.‖9

Margaret H. Bulley said, ―Art is spiritual in essence and can only be

received and understood by spiritual man. Works of art alone explain art.

They are symbols or parables through which mortals catch sight of

spiritual truth or reality. The truth is not in the symbol, but the symbol can

reflect the truth. It serves as a clue or pointer to the nature of what is

true.‖10

Michaelangelo says,

―Art, I believe, puts us in a state of grace when universal emotion reveals

itself to us religiously, yet very naturally, everywhere…. We should find

the universal harmony everywhere, like colour. What is important is the

general idea. It cannot be explained but must be felt.‖11

9 Tolstoy, C.F., What is Art? An Essay on Art, Translated by Aylmer Maude, Oxford London, 1938, p.100.

10 Bulley, Margaret H., op.cit. p. 1.

11 Ibid. p. 69.

7

For Kant art was always ―a sensible and imaged covering for an

intellectual concept.‖12

Many philosophers and even artists like Leonardo held the view that

art is nothing but the ―imitation of nature.‖13

According to Herbert Spencer,

―The origin of art is play. In the lower animals all the energy of

life is expended in life—maintenance and race—maintenance,

in man however there remains after these needs are satisfied,

some superfluous strength. This excess is used in play which

passes over into art. Play is an imitation of real activity. So is

art.‖14

Benedetto Croce says that ―Art is intuition and expression.‖

According to him,

―There are two kinds of knowledge—intuitive or imaginative, and

intellectual or conceptual. Works of art are primarily examples of

intuitive knowledge. Intuitive knowledge is direct knowledge of

individuals, including images. It is also active (not passive reception of

sensations); the knower somehow creates what he knows. Intuitions

(occasions of intuitive knowledge) are further more identified with

expression.‖15

Croce said:

―Art is governed entirely by imagination; its only riches are

images. Art does not classify objects, nor pronounces them real

12

Croce, Benedetto, Aesthetic, Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic. Translated by D. Ainslie, Macmillan,London, 1909, p. 293.

13 Chamot Mary and others, op. cit. P. 371.

14 Tolstoy, C.F., op. cit. P. 108.

15 Croce, Benedetto, op. cit. p.

8

or imaginary, nor qualifies them, nor defines them. Nothing

more, Art therefore is intuition.‖16

He further says that every true intuition or representation is also

expression. That which does not objectify itself in expression is not

intuition or representation but sensation and naturality. The spirit does not

obtain intuitions, otherwise than by making, forming, expressing. He who

separates intuition from expression never succeeds in reuniting them.‖17

Thus art is the expression of impressions, not the expression of

expressions.‖18

Collingwood holds the view that art is imagination. According to

him, ‗the work of art exists in imagination. It is an imaginary object.‘ For

Collingwood, the work of art is essentially an experience, something

which exists in the mind of the artist. From the words of the poem or the

paint on the canvas, the appreciator must recreate the experience of the

artist. An only in so far as he is able to do this can he be said to know the

work of art.‖19

Collingwood tells us that ―before an artist creates or a poet writes,

he has a feeling of intense uneasiness. If you say he is subject to emotion

or feeling that would not be quite accurate, because the poet cannot tell 16

Croce, Benedetto, op. cit. P.385.

17 Ibid. p. 13

18 Ibid. p. 21

19 Collingwood R.G.,The Principles of Art, Oxford, 1938, p.194.

9

you what he is feeling; he is in a state of emotional confusion. In this

situation the artist picks up his brush or his instrument or gets hold of pen

and ink. In trying to give expression to his vague and undefined emotion,

he discovers it. And in discovering himself or in realizing this experience

he creates a language.‖20

Both Croce and Collingwood regard art as imagination, but Croce

says that this imagination is also expression.

According to Veron, ―Art is the external manifestation, by means of

lines, colours, movements, sounds, or words of emotion felt by man.‖21

Susan Langer says that what art expresses is not actual feeling, but

ideas of feeling; as language does not express actual things and events but

ideas of them. Art is expressive through and through, every line, every

sound, every gesture, and, therefore, is hundred percent symbolic; the

sensuously pleasing and also symbolic; the sensuous quality is in the

service of its vital import. A work of art is far more symbolic than a word;

which can be learned or even employed without any knowledge of its

meaning; for a purely and wholly articulated symbol presents its import

directly to any beholder who is sensitive at all to articulated forms in given

medium.‖22

20

Chatterji, P. C., Fundamental Question in Aesthetics, Simla, 1968, p.39.

21 Tolstoy, C. F. Op. cit. P. 119.

22 Langer, Susan, Philosophy in a New Key, Mentor Books, New York, p. 59.

10

According to Veron, man expresses his emotions in the form of Art,

while Susan Langer says that art is the idea of feeling.

According to Picasso, ―Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth, at

least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the

manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.‖23

A philosopher like Tolstoy regards art as a mode of

communication. He says that ―To evoke in oneself a feeling, one has once

experienced and having evoked in oneself then by means of movements,

lines, colours, sounds or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that

feeling so that others experience the same feelings—this is the activity of

art.

Art is a human activity consisting in this that one man consciously,

by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived

through and that others are infected by these feelings and also experience

them.‖24

Sully says that art not only gives enjoyment to the person who

creates art, but also provides pleasure to the one who sees it. It is a mode

to convey. According to him, ―Art is the production of some permanent

object or passing action which is fitted not only to supply an active

23

Bulley Margaret H., Op. cit. P. 47.

24 Tolstoy, C.F., Op. cit. P.123.

11

enjoyment to the producer, but to convey a pleasurable impression to a

number of spectators or listeners, quite apart from any personal advantage

to be derived from it.‖25

Thus we see that different philosophers hold different views

regarding art. Some regard art as something spiritual. They believe that

art belongs to God. All beauty is created by God. Others say that art is

imitation, imitation of nature. Collingwood regards it as an imaginary

object. It is an emotion of the artist which he expresses in the form of art.

While Croce regards art both as an intuition as well as an expression.

Tolstoy regards art as a means of communicating ones ideas and feelings.

Art stands for perception, imagination, expression and

communication of, feelings and thoughts.

There are certain things or objects around us, when we see them

they remain in our subconscious mind for a long time. This is known as

perception. Perception gives birth to imagination because the artist does

not depict precisely what he sees. He looks at the object and stores the

impression in his memory. He paints the picture, according to what he has

been seeing and feeling. Artists perceive the object and what he creates or

paints is his subject, which is the result of his imagination. The

imagination is subjective while perception is objective. Imagination in

25

Tolstoy, C. F., Op. cit. P. 119.

12

turn gives birth to expression because if the artist is immersed in his

sensory experience and in his imagination he cannot create art. Therefore,

he must emerge from his imagination and express his feelings, thoughts

and ideas. Finally, the expressions of the artist are communicated to others

by means of colour, sound, words, etc. We can explain it with the help of

the diagram:

Perception

--

--

-

Imagination

--

--

-

Expression

--

--

-

Communication

Art is perception and imagination in the sense that one cannot

imagine without perception. Perception and imagination are inter-

dependent. The artist is able to create art because he had perceived the

object earlier. It is due to perception that an artist is able to imagine. An

artist cannot imagine in a vacuum. So art is first perception, then

imagination. Our eyes perceive and our minds imagine.

For example, there are two persons. One of them has been brought

up around nature, has seen the world, its beauty, and the people around

him. The other has been brought up in isolation in a dark room, has never

seen nature or the world. The two are asked to paint nature, or write a

poem about nature. The first person will be able to draw or write because

he has perceived nature and with his own imagination he is able to express

13

his feelings, thoughts or ideas about nature. On the other hand, the other

person will not be able to draw or write because he has never seen nature

so he cannot imagine it also.

Whatever the artist creates, his perception and imagination is

involved. The perception gives the artist an inspiration to create things. In

every work of art, the artist‘s imagination is involved. The human activity

which produces art is imagination. It is through imagination that the artist

reacts to the external world by expressing his own feelings. Words, forms,

colours and sounds are created by imagination. It is because of

imagination that form is produced. It is through form that one recognizes

the activity of the mind. Art is a creative activity. If it is copied, it is not

art. So art always involves the artist‘s imagination. For example—the

flowers look very beautiful while they are blossomed on the tree.

Although flowers appear beautiful but it is not art. When one arranges

those flowers in a vase then it is art, because here the imagination of the

artist is involved. Thus we see that art is both perception and imagination.

Art is expression and communication in the sense that when we

imagine something it is necessary for us to express it. If we confine our

imagination to ourselves it will be merely ‗fancy‘, not art. So art is the

expression of our imagination. It is through art that man expresses his

feelings, thoughts and ideas, either on canvas or marble or by writing it. In

14

olden days, when the art of writing was not known, or language was not

known, people used to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas through

painting or engraving. Art is the best mode of expression of one‘s mental

and emotional state. When we express our feelings, thought or idea, we

want that it should be communicated also, and art serves this purpose. It is

a mode of communication. Mere expression is not art. To be called art,

one‘s expression must be communicated also. Here communication means

to publicise one‘s ideas, thought and feeling. If we express our thought,

feelings, ideas on canvas or in any other form but do not make it public, it

won‘t be art. If a person writes a poem (in this way he is expressing

himself) but does not make it public, how can others know his feelings.

Though he is expressing his ideas but not communicating them, it will not

be art. Art is both expression and communication. As a human being we

always want to share our personal experience with others and we are also

interested in the personal experiences of others. Art serves the same

purpose.

Thus art is perception, imagination, expression and communication.

1:2 What is Painting?

Architecture, sculpture and paintings are the three great forms of art

which appeal to the spirit through the eyes, painting being the oldest. The

art of painting is as old as human beings are. It is one of the oldest art

15

forms which even the primitive man knew. ―How did the caveman learn to

make such skillful pictures? We do not really know for sure. But since the

pictures are done on the sides of caves, which were rough and bumpy, it is

possible that the idea of making pictures came from these bumps. Just as

the ink blot suggests ideas to us, some hungry cave man, staring at the

wall of his cave, might have imagined that that particular bump looked

like an animal and perhaps he drew an outline around it with a burned

stick from the fire. He would then complete the picture by filling in the

parts that were not there. Finally, he learned how to make such a drawing

all by himself without the help of a bump on the wall of the cave.26

Man,

still in his savage stage, was charmed by nature, the playful blending of

light and shade. He had appreciated nature in the form of paintings which

adorn their cave walls. He founded painting as one of the most appropriate

mode of expression of his feelings, thoughts and ideas, because the art of

writing was not known to him. Long before man learnt the art of writing

he knew the art of painting. The paintings which adorn the cave walls of

the pre-historic man are our chief source of information of that period.

Although very few paintings of that period have survived to this day,

because the material used in painting was, unfortunately, more perishable

26

. Harry N Abrams, The Picture History of Painting: From Cave Painting to Modern Times. Inc. New York, 1957, p. 8.

16

than material used in any other form of art. But whatever little has

survived is our chief source of information of the pre-historic people as

there no written records of that period.

Among the earliest records of human creative activity are the

paintings executed in the Paleolithic period on the walls of caves, as at

Altamira in Northern Spain and Font-de-Gaume in South-western

France.27

The materials used in making them were simple mineral colours

ranging in hue through a gamut of browns and reds, supplemented by

blacks and grays, which are applied within incised contours to smoothed

surfaces of the walls in a process not unlike that of fresco painting.28

In India, the earliest known paintings have been found on the walls

of caves in northern India. Painted in red ochre, they represent animal

hunts and so resemble similar scenes found in the Paleolithic caves of

Spain that archaeologists believe the two contemporary.29

Even after the advancement of civilization the art of painting

flourished because of its less complex nature and its universal acceptance.

In olden days when life was simple, people knew nothing about the

materialistic world but had love and appreciation for nature and wanted to

make their place of living beautiful, they adopted the art of painting

27

See Plate No 1.

28 The Encyclopedia , Americana. U.S.A., 1955, Vol. XXI, p.111.

29 See Plate No. 2.

17

because the material used for painting was very simple and was easily

available in the vicinity. He obtained various colours from flowers and

other natural vegetation. The brush was also very simple—it was either a

wooden stick or some type of grass. The subject he chose for painting was

what he saw around him. The motive behind these paintings is still not

known. It was either to decorate his living place or it had some religious

or magical purpose.

Even today, the art of painting is a part of our life. Paintings adorn

the walls of our homes, or are made for rituals, or is a mode of publicity,

etc. ―Paintings are used to enrich the walls of our living quarters and also

to preserve the likeness of members of our families. Similarly, paintings

are used to commemorate events of social importance and to embellish

public buildings.‖30

It is because of the very simplicity of elements involved that the

practice of painting is so popular and universal, and it is for the same

reason that it can be used equally for the epic interpretation of the

‗Creation of the Universe, of man, and his fall‘, which is Michaelangelo‘s

Sistine Chapel Ceiling as for the nucleus of a page of advertising. The

quality of the result, as a work of art, is the extent to which the artist

30

. Ray Faulkner, E. Ziegfeld & G. Hill Art Today, New York, 1941, p.114.

18

desired to give form is embodied in and made clear by the pattern of line

and colour that constitutes the physical substance of the painting.31

Now the question arises, what is painting? There are different views

regarding the definition of painting.

―A painting is a layer of pigments applied to a surface. It is an

arrangement of shapes and colours. It is a projection of the

personality of the artist who painted it, a statement, or at least a

partial statement—of the philosophy of the age that produced it,

and it can have meanings beyond anything concerned with the

one person who painted it or the one period in which it was

created.‖32

―Painting in the fine art, is the application of colour to a surface for

the purpose of creating images.‖33

―As an expressive art painting consists in the organizaing of ideas in

terms of line and colour upon a two-dimensional plane.‖34

―According to Michaelangelo, painting is a music and melody

which intellect only can appreciate and with great difficulty.‖35

―Painting, like literature, is an art of complex appeal; nevertheless,

the vital task for the artist remains to express him in that special form, that

31

The Encyclopedia Americana. U.S.A., 1955, Vol. XXI, p.111.

32 Canaday John Edwin, What is Art? An Introduction to Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Published

by McGraw-Hill Companies, 1980. P. 11.

33 Encyclopedia of World Art, Vol. X, McGraw-Hill, London, 1965, p.899.

34 Maurice Denis, Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. XXI, U. S. A., 1955, p.111

35 Mary Chamot & Others,The Arts, Paintings, the Graphic Arts, Sculpture and Architecture, London,

Undated, p.145

19

―music and melody‖, without which the art of painting remains

incomplete.‖36

―A painting is an object composed of various elements, its function

is to present images for perception which are endowed with quality and

meaning.‖37

―Painting, of all the arts, is perhaps the one in which the creative

artist is most involved in all the operations and stages of the technical

process; even in painting however there are inherited technical traditions

and practical usages.‖38

―The art of painting is the expression of ideas and emotions, with

the creation of certain aesthetic qualities, in a two dimensional visual

language. The elements of this language—its shapes, lines, colours, tones

and textures—are used in various ways to produce sensations of volume,

space, movement, and light on a flat surface. These elements are

combined into expressive patterns in order to represent real or

supernatural phenomena, to interpret a narrative theme, or to create wholly

abstract visual relationship. The artist communicates his visual message in

36

Mary Chamot & Others, The Arts, Paintings, the Graphic Arts, Sculpture and Architecture, London, Undated, p.160.

37 Encyclopedia of World Art, op.cit. P. 914, vol. x.

38 Ibid. p. 918.

20

terms of the sensuous qualities and expressive possibilities and limitations

of a particular medium, technique and form.‖39

1:2:1 Western Paintings

1:2:1:1 Pre-historic: The earliest records of human creative activity are

the paintings founded during the prehistoric period on the walls of caves at

Altamira in northern Spain and Font-de-Gaume in South-western France.40

The materials used in making them were very simple. They used mineral

colours. The colours used were browns and red which were supplelmented

by blacks and grays. The cavemen generally painted the animals which

surrounded them. ―The bison and deer in the Altamira Caves are shown

almost without exception in profile views—whether charging, standing or

reclining.‖41

1:2:1:2 Egypt: In Egypt, painting was the mode of expression, in the way

it was during pre-historic times. ―As early as the old kingdom period

which began about 3400 B. C., it was called upon to aid in creating the

symbols of achievement and distinction that covered the walls of tombs

with records of the ways in which their inhabitants lived in mortal life. For

the Egyptian, as for the pre-historic man, therefore, painting was a

39

The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XIII, 1977, p.869.

40 The Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. XXI, U. S. A., 1955, p.111.

41 Ibid. p. 111.

21

functional art, defining concepts of accepted social values, rather than

simply a form of decorations.‖42

The oldest Egyptian painting was made on the wall of a temple or

tomb in a place called Hieraconpolis on the bank of the Nile, almost 6000

years ago.43

In Egypt, painting was the part of sculpture. Colours were applied

on the sculpture. ―It was usually employed as a supplement to sculptured

relief, the carved stone often being covered by a thin layer of smoothed

plaster or stucco to which the colour was applied. They used dark

reddish-brown colour for the flesh of male figures while feminine ones are

of lighter cream colour.‖44

1:2:1:3 Aegean: Painting was a significant art in the Aegean world, where

in the islands off the mainland of Greece, in Crete, and in the mainland

itself, a brilliant culture was maintained from the fourth through the

second millennia B.C.45

For the Cretans, painting was for decorations and

pleasure. Painting was done on the palace walls to make a splendid

decoration. ―Painting in this region appears in the form of decoration for

42

Ibid. p. 111.

43 Abrams Harry N, 0p. Cit. P.14. & See Plate No. 3.

44 .The Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. XXI, U. S. A., 1955, p.112.

45 Ibid. p. 112.

22

countless vases and jars46

and mural decorations on the walls of the great

palaces such as those at Knossos and Phaistos in Crete and at Tiryns on

the mainland.‖47

1:2:1:4 Greece: Greece learned a great deal from the Cretans and this

helped them to build up a great civilization of their own. Between the

eighth and third centuries B. C. the Greeks produced their keenest thinkers

and their finest artists. As in Crete, in Greece too paintings were done on

the walls of the temples and houses. Greek painters generally painted

Human forms.48

―Greek painting can be described as entirely devoted to

the representation of human beings, neither animals nor nature having any

place in it except as aids to the understanding of the event depicted.‖49

1:2:1:5 Roman: The Romans were great patrons of art. They were good

at making fresco paintings. This was proved from the many murals that

have been dug up among the ruins of their towns.50

Roman painters often

combined the real and the ideal.51

They were influenced by the Greeks.

46

See Plate No. 4

47 The Encyclopedia Americana, vol. XXI, op. cit. P. 112.

48 See Plate No.5.

49 Luc Benoist, Jean Cassou and others, Handbook of Western Painting—From Cave Painting to

Abstract Art, London, 1961, p.9.

50 Abrams, Harry N. ,op cit. P. 34.

51 Ibid. p. 35

23

The Romans extensively employed the mosaic technique, in which

a pattern is worked out in countless small cubes of marble or glass held in

place in a bed of plaster on a wall or the floor.52

1:2:1:6 Medieval Ages: During 5th century B. C., Rome was a small state

like Athens, but soon she became a vast empire with its own civilization

due to her military strength and talent for government and politics. The

Roman Empire was divided into two halves—Eastern and Western. The

latter soon broke into many pieces and was destroyed as the result of

invasions by Barbarians. The Eastern Roman Empire, which was founded

before 500 A. D., continued for a thousand years more, with its capital at

Byzantine. The Church was established and Christianity became the

official religion.

The Byzantines built beautiful Churches with lavish decorations.

The official Christian style of painting was called Byzantine after that city

whose modern name is Istanbul.53

―Byzantine gave painting a purely

didactic task54

, that of offering a programmatic exposition of religious

facts, understandable to all, in order to assist the memory and excite the

imagination in a predetermined direction. The painting assumed a highly

important position in the religious cult, becoming an organic component

52

The Encyclopedia Americana Vol. XXI, op. cit. P. 113.& See Plate No.6.

53 Abrams, Harry N.,op.cit. p.40.

54 See Plate No.7.

24

of the sacred ritual. It played an important role in the court ceremonial as

well, for it served to surround the cult of the emperor with an aura of

Roman splendor and magnificence.‖55

The downfall of the Roman Empire resulted in great confusion in

Western Europe, giving rise to a large number of small states. The nations

of Western Europe, The English, the French, and the rest—all got their

start from here.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church

became its natural successor. During the troubled time, the Church was the

only stable institution left in Western Europe. The Church was the only

center of education and learning. Monks and priests imparted education

and were the only literate men in Europe. ―The monks, however, were not

only priests and teachers. From the fifth to the twelfth centuries, they were

also the leading artists and craftsmen. In those days almost every

monastery had a workshop for making copies of the Bible and other

books. This was done by hand, since printing had not yet been invented.

The monks did not know about paper, they wrote on ‗vellum‘, a material

made from the skin of calves. The writing shops also included painters

whose job was to decorate the manuscripts with pictures and ornaments.

55

. Encyclopedia of World Art. Op. Cit. Vol. II., p.796.

25

For many centuries, these miniatures were the most important kind of

medieval painting and most precious legacies of the middle ages.‖56

From the twelfth century, there came a change in medieval society.

People started leaving the countryside and started living in towns. City

life made people more independent and they started taking a greater

interest in the world around them. The towns soon became the centers of

wealth, and of art and learning as well. Out of this new spirit came a new

style in art called Gothic Art. It started in France and spread in all other

countries of the Western world. The great cycles of painting, which were

used to cover the huge bare walls of Romanesque churches, gradually

went out of favor almost everywhere during the Gothic period, as a result

of the introduction of wide openings in church walls. These openings

broke up the architectural masses and reduced the amount of smooth

surface. Fresco painting became chiefly ornamental; it was used on

ceilings, archivolts, and ribs. During this period a new style of painting

flourished which was done on small pieces of coloured glass which were

cut to shape and then fitted together with lead frames into large stained

glass windows. These windows were essential part of Gothic architecture.

56

Encyclopedia of World Art, op. cit. Vol VI, p 575

26

―The stained-glass window came into its own, creating a warm, rich

atmosphere in the building interior.‖57

1:2:1:7 15th

Century: The fifteenth century was the era of exploration

and discoveries. During this period people became more aware about their

surroundings. They became keen to explore the whole world and

everything in it. During this period, many new geographical discoveries

took place. In 1492, Columbus discovered America. Vasco Da Gama had

discovered the sea route to India. The technique of printing was invented

thus making the book cheap. The artists of this period too turned to

explorers. ―Just as the 14th century was the age of mysticism, had revealed

the depths of the soul-life, so the 15th century takes possession of the

external world; as trade and navigation had discovered new worlds, so

painting discovered life. She no longer seeks to arouse contemplative and

pious sentiments, but rather to mirror the external world in all of its

beauty.‖58

The artist now realized that the world around them was full of

beauties and wonders. They began to see the things through their own eyes

instead of relying on books.

It was from the manuscript tradition of the middle Ages that one of

the great pictorial styles of the 15th century developed that of Flanders.

57

Encyclopedia of World Art, op. cit. Vol VI, p 575& See Plate No. 8.

58 Muther Richard, The History of Paintings from the Fourth to the Early Nineteenth Century, London,

1907, VOL.I, p. 41

27

The Van Eyck brothers Hubert, Rogier Van der Weyden were famous

painters of this period. The 15th Century was regarded as a renaissance in

Europe. Thus, came renaissance in the field of painting too. The

theological abstraction of the medieval age was replaced by a new feeling

for the significance of individual experience and it was regarded as a

humanization of medieval beliefs.

The word "renaissance" means "rebirth" or "revival." In the 14th

century many Italian scholars believed that the arts had been declining in

quality for 1,000 years. They admired the art and writing of the Classical

Age (400 B.C.-A.D. 400), the time of the Greek and Roman empires. To

revive the glory and grandeur of the ancient past, these scholars eagerly

studied classical literature, architecture, and sculpture.

But the Renaissance was much more than a rebirth of classical art.

It was a rejection of the middle Ages, which were just ending. During

medieval times, the arts were concerned mainly with religion, with the life

of the spirit, with the hereafter. Little importance was given to life on earth

except as a preparation for the next world. But as the 15th century began,

Italians were turning their attention to the world around them. People now

were more concerned about secular, or nonreligious, matters. They began

placing faith in their own qualities and their own importance. This new

spirit was called humanism. Artists were among the first affected by the

28

new spirit of humanism. In their work they began to focus on human life

on earth.

During the middle Ages, the Catholic Church thought European art

should only be about religion. Painters and sculptors only worked with

themes from the Bible. The church, which supported the artists, wanted

viewers to concentrate on Biblical stories, religious teachings, lives of

saints and matters pertaining to spiritual world.For medieval church men

and women both were sinners because of original sin and were not liable

to be depicted as subjects of the painters and artists. The people looked

flat and two-dimensional. The figures and objects in the picture were all

the same size and stacked up on each other and there was no depth.

Renaissance art broke free from the church and turned to the classic ideals

of Greece and Rome for inspiration. It celebrated people and human ideas

and ability. Renaissance artists stressed the beauty of the human body.

They tried to capture the dignity of human beings in life like paintings and

sculptures. They believed if art looked more realistic, people would be

able to connect with it. Medieval spiritualism had begun fading in order to

welcome modern materialism.

In order to create more realistic art, Renaissance artists developed

new painting techniques, including linear perspective and chiaroscuro.

Instead of stacking figures and objects together on a canvas, figures that

29

were far away were painted smaller. Those closer up were painted bigger.

Paintings of three dimensions were now possible. Chiaroscuro is all about

shadows. Painters would layer light and dark paint to show the way light

shines on a surface and the shadows it creates. Chiaroscuro and the use of

shadowing made figures look more realistic and expressive. With

shadows, painters could create a sense of depth. Figures looked less flat or

stiff. Leonardo da Vinci used chiaroscuro in his brilliant work ―Mona

Lisa‖59

, is one of the most famous on earth. Compare it with the religious

painting from the Middle Ages to see how Renaissance techniques made

the Mona Lisa look more lifelike. The David60

is another masterpiece of

Renaissance art. Michelangelo carved the statue out of marble. David is a

character from the Bible. In the Bible story Michelangelo used to create

the statue, young David defeats the giant Goliath with a slingshot. Even

though he is a biblical character, Michelangelo‘s David celebrates

humanity and the power of man.

1:3 Origins of Renaissance Art

The origins of Renaissance art can be traced to Italy in the late 13th

and early 14th centuries. During this so-called ―proto-Renaissance‖ period

(1280-1400), Italian scholars and artists saw themselves as reawakening to 59

See Plate No. 9

60 See Plate No. 10.

30

the ideals and achievements of classical Roman culture. Writers such as

Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) looked back

to ancient Greece and Rome and sought to revive the languages, values

and intellectual traditions of those cultures after the long period of

stagnation that had followed the fall of the Roman Empire in the sixth

century.

The Florentine, painter, Giotto (1267?-1337) was the most famous

artist of the proto-Renaissance, made enormous advances in the technique

of representing the human body realistically. His frescoes were said to

have decorated cathedrals at Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence and Naples,

though there has been difficulty attributing such works with certainty.

Giotto, the famous painter of the 15th

century broke the old rules

and made his paintings look real and lively. ―Giotto, for whom, expressive

style was not a matter of graceful line decorative colour, or even the

austere formalism of his master. In truly classic fashion, Giotto realized

the necessity of making his forms visually convincing if the emotions by

which they were impelled or the ideas which they embodied were to carry

conviction.‖61

He established himself as one of the great humanistic

61

The Encyclopedia Americana, USA, 1955, Vol. 21, p. 115.

31

painters. Giotto produced a marvelous fresco in the ―Arena Chapel at

Padua known as Allegory of Envy.‖62

In the later 14th century, the proto-Renaissance was stifled by

plague and war, and its influences did not emerge again until the first

years of the next century. In 1401, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378-

1455) won a major competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the

Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, beating out contemporaries such as

the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and the young Donatello

(c. 1386- 1466), who would later emerge as the master of early

Renaissance sculpture.

The other major artist working during this period was the painter

Masaccio (1401-1428), known for his frescoes of the Trinity in the Church

of Santa Maria Novella (c. 1426) and in the Brancacci Chapel of the

Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (c. 1427), both in Florence and

―Expulsion of Adam & Eave from Paradise‖.63

Masaccio painted for less

than six years but was highly influential in the early Renaissance for the

intellectual nature of his work, as well as its degree of naturalism. Fra

Angelico and Massacio were the painters who added much to finding and

perfection of new techniques.

62

See Plate No.11.

63 See Plate No. 12.

32

Botticelli, another painter of that period was influenced by the spirit

of classicism and thus gave new life to the tradition of Christian art. The

subjects of his paintings were like ‗Birth of Venus,64

Spring, Mars and

Venus,‘ which he selected from Greek Mythology.

The chief characteristic of the Renaissance was humanism.

Therefore, the painters of that period also adopted the humanistic spirit.

Although the subjects of the paintings were from the Bible, they were

portrayed with all the worldly beauty.

The aim of medieval paintings was to impart religious teachings. The

Renaissance artists looked upon art as an invitation of life. They acquired

information of the world by close observation of nature and of man. The

artists studied optics and geometry and used their knowledge to develop a

perspective in their paintings. They studied human anatomy to find the

mechanism underlying gestures and expressions.

The 15th

Century was the period in which the eyes of man were

opened to the beauties of the world.

1:3:1 16th

Century: By the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced

Florence as the principal center of Renaissance art, reaching a high point

under the powerful and ambitious Pope Leo X (a son of Lorenzo de‘

64

See Plate No.13

33

Medici). Three great masters–Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and

Raphael–dominated the period known as the High Renaissance, which

lasted roughly from the early 1490s until the sack of Rome by the troops

of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1527. The 16th

Century

was regarded as the Age of Genius or the High Renaissance. During this

century there were so many great men that they seemed like ―a new race

of giants, gifted with creative powers such as the human mind had never

known before.‖65

Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Raphael were

three great painters of that period.

Leonardo da Vinci was the all-round genius than any other man in

history. He was an artist with a scientific temper. His great paintings

reflect not only his own hold over light, shade and colour, but a careful

study of human anatomy and problems of perspective. Artists, he said are

the best scientists; not only do they observe things better than other

people—they think about what they see, and then tell the rest of us about it

in pictures.‖66

Now a days, scientists prefer to put their knowledge into

words (they have to invent great many new ones for this purpose), but in

the Renaissance, a good picture was still ―worth a thousand words.‖67

65

The Picture History of Painting, op. cit. p.109.

66 The Picture History of Painting, op. cit. p. 111.

67 The Picture History of Painting, op. cit. p. 111.

34

Leonardo was the first man to design flying machines and made

exact pictures of the inside of the human body. His paintings, the ―Last

Supper‖68

, a fresco, and ‗Mona Lisa‘69

, painted about 1505, now in the

collection of the Louvre in Paris are his everlasting masterpieces. The

―Last Supper‖ is at ‗Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan‘. The portrait of

Mona Lisa has kept all the art lovers wondering for centuries for its

enigmatic smile. Leonardo‘s other two paintings which evoke great

admiration is the ‗Virgin of the Rocks‘70

and ‗The Virgin and the Child.‘71

1:3:2 Michael Angelo: Michael Angelo was a contemporary of Leonardo

and Raphael. Like Leonardo, he was also from Florence and a versatile

genius. He was a great sculptor but rose to prominence in other fields such

as painting, architecture, poetry and engineering. ―Michael Angelo‘s

masterpiece is the huge fresco covering the entire ceiling of ―the Sistine

Chapel in the Vatican‖.72

He did it between 1508 and 1512 for Julius II,

during whose reign Rome became the center of Italian art. Another

famous masterpiece of Michael Angelo was the fresco which he painted

68

See Plate No.14.

69 See Plate No.9

70 See Plate No.15

71 See Plate No.16

72 See Plate No.17

35

on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel ‗The Last Judgment,‘73

which during

counter reformation faced the wrath of the fundamentalists.

1:3:3 Raphael: Raphael also came to Rome at the request of Julius II.

He learned a great deal from Leonardo‘s work. The theme of his paintings

was mainly Madonna and Child of which the Sistine Madonna is the best

known. ―Disputa‖74

and ―School of Athens‖75

is also remarkable piece of

work. Numerous mythological paintings and portraits are uniformly

consistent and decorative in their simple but logical composition schemes,

the unfailing tact of the characterizations.

Thus the Renaissance, a cultural movement roughly spanning from

the 14th to the mid 17 century, heralded the study of classical sources, as

well as advances in science which profoundly influenced European

intellectual and artistic life. In Italy, artists like Paolo Uccello, Fra

Angelico, Masaccio, Andrea Mantegna, Filippo Lippi, Giorgione,

Leoenardo da Vince, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Titian took painting to

a higher level through the use of perspective, the study of human anatomy

and proportion, and through their development of an unprecedented

refinement in drawing and painting techniques

73

See Plate No.18

74See Plate No. 19

75 See Plate No.20

36

Flemish, Dutch and German painters of the Renaissance such as

Hans Holbein the younger, Albrecht Durer, Lucas Cranach Bosch and

Pieter Bruegel represent a different approach from their Italian colleagues,

one that is more realistic and less idealized. Genre painting became a

popular idiom amongst the Northern painters like Pieter Bruegel. The

adoption of oil painting whose invention was traditionally, but

erroneously, credited to Jan Van Eyck, made possible a new verisimilitude

in depicting reality. Unlike the Italians, whose work drew heavily from the

art of Ancient Greece and Rome, the Northerners retained a stylistic

residue of the sculpture and illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

Renaissance painting reflects the revolution of ideas and science

that occurred in this period, the Reformation, and the invention of the

printing press. Durer considered one of the greatest printmakers, states

that painters are not mere artisans but thinkers as well. With the

development of easel painting in the Renaissance, painting gained

independence from architecture. Following centuries dominated by

religious imagery, secular subject matter slowly returned to western

painting. Artists included vision of the world around them in their

paintings. Those who could afford the expense could become patrons and

commission portraits of themselves and their families.

37

In the 16th century, movable pictures which could be hung easily on walls,

rather than paintings affixed to permanent structures came into popular

demand.76

1:3:4 Mannerism, Baroque and Rococo: In European art, Renaissance

classicism spawned two different movements—Mannerism and the

Baroque. Mannerism was a reaction against the idealist perfection of

classicism. It employed distortion of light and spatial frameworks in order

to emphasize the emotional content of a painting and the emotions of the

painter. The work of El Greco is an example of Mannerism in painting

during the late 16th

and 17th centuries.

Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and

reacting to the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo

da Vinci, Raphael and early Michaelangelo. While High Renaissance

explored harmonious ideals, Mannerism wanted to go a step further.77

Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its

artificial qualities.78

Mannerism favours compositional tension and

instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance

painting.

76

v en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_painting

77 Gombrich, E H. The Story of Art London:Phaidon Press Ltd, ISBN 0-7148-3247-2

78 Finocchio, Ross. "Mannerism: Bronzino (1503–1572) and his Contemporaries". In Heilbrunn Timeline

of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zino/hd_zino.htm (October 2003)

38

The word ‗mannerism‘ deives from the Italian word maniera,

meaning ―style‖ or ―manner‖. Like the English word ―style‖, manieracan

either indicate a specific type of style (a beautiful style, an abrasive

style),or indicate an absolute that needs no qualification (Someone ―has

style‖).79

1:3:5 Baroque: Baroque art is often seen as part of the counter

Reformation—the artistic element of the revival of spiritual life in the

Roman Catholic Church. Religious and political themes were widely

explored within the Baroque artist and there is a strong element of drama

and emotion. Famous Baroque artist are Caravaggio or Rubens.80

Baroque

art was particularly ornate and elaborate in nature, often using rich, warm

colours with dark undertones. Pomp and grandeur were important

elements of the Baroque artistic movement in general. Baroque art in

many ways was similar to Renaissance art. The term was initially used in

a derogatory manner to describe post-Renaissance art and architecture

which was gaudy, over-sentimental and of poor taste.

1:3:6 Rococo: Rococo or ‗Late Baroque‘ is an 18th century artistic

movement and style, which affected several aspects of the arts including

painting, sculpture, architecture, etc., The Rococo style developed in the

79

Shearman John, “Maniera as an Aesthetic Ideal” In Cheney, 2004, p. 37

80 “Baroque Art” Art History – Famous Artists, paintings. Com.

39

early part of the 18th century in Paris, France, as a reaction against the

grandeur, symmetry and strict regulations of the Baroque, especially that

of the Palace of Versailles. In such a way, Rococo artists opted for a more

florid and graceful approach to Baroque art and architecture. Rococo art

was more elaborate than the Baroque, but it was less serious and more

playful.81

Whilst the Baroque used rich, strong colours, Rococo used pale,

creamier shades. The artistic movement no longer placed an emphasis on

politics and religion, focusing instead on lighter themes such as romance,

celebration and appreciation of nature.

1:3:7 Neo-classical: Throughout the 18th century, a counter movement

opposing the Rococo sprang up in different parts of Europe, commonly

known as Neoclassicism. It despised the perceived superficiality and

frivolity of Rococo art, and desired for a return to simplicity, ‗order‘ and

‗purism‘ of classical antiquity, especially ancient Greece and Rome. The

movement was also influenced by the Renaissance, which itself was

strongly influenced by classical art. Neoclassicism was the artistic

component of the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment. The

Enlightenment was idealistic and put its emphasis on objectivity, reason

and empirical truth. A defining moment for Neoclassicism came during

81

"Ancien Regime Rococo". Bc.edu. Retrieved 2013-08-25.

40

the French Revolution in the late 18th century. In France, Rococo art was

replaced with the preferred Neo classical art. In fact, Neoclassicism can be

seen as a political movement as well as an artistic and cultural one.82

Neoclassical art places an emphasis on order, symmetry and classical

simplicity. Common themes were courage and war. Ingres, Canova and

Jacques-Louis David are among the best known artists.

1:3:8 Romanticism: Just as Mannerism rejected Classicism, so did

Romanticism reject the ideas of the Enlightenment and the aesthetics of

the Neoclassicists.83

Romanticism rejected the highly objective and

ordered nature of Neoclassicism and opted for a more individual and

emotional approach of the arts. Romanticism placed an emphasis on

nature, especially when aiming to portray the power and beauty of the

natural world and emotions, and sought a highly personal approach to art.

Romantic art was about individual feelings, not common themes, such as

in Neoclassicism, in such a way, Romantic art often used colours in order

to express feelings and emotions.84

Similarly, to Neoclassicism, Romantic

art took much of its inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman art and

82

"Art in Neoclassicism". Artsz.org. 2008-02-26. Retrieved 2013-08-25.

83 "General Introduction to Postmodernism". Cla.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2013-08-25.

84 Ibid.

41

mythology.85

Among the greatest Romantic artists were Eugene Delacroix,

Franciso Goya, Turner, John Constable, Caspar David Friedric, Thomas

Cole and William Blake.

1:3:9 Realism: In the 19th century, due to industrialization, there came a

huge change in European society. Poverty, squalor and desperation were

to be the fate of the new working class created by the ―revolution‖. In

response to these ongoing changes in society, the movement or Realism

emerged.86

Realism sought to accurately portray the conditions and

hardships of the poor in the hope of changing society. In contrast with

Romanticism, which was essentially optimistic about mankind, Realism

offered a stark vision of poverty and despair. Similarly, while

Romanticism glorified nature, Realism portrayed life in the depths of an

urban wasteland.87

Like Romanticism, Realism was literary as well as an

artistic movement. The great Realist painters were Jean Baptiste, Gustav

Courbet, Jean Francois Millet, Camille Corot, and Thomas Eakins.

By the mid-19th century, painters became liberated from the

demands of their patronage to only depict scenes from religious

mythology, portraiture or history. The idea of ―art for art‘s sake‖ began to

85

James J. Sheehan, "Art and Its Publics, c. 1800," United and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800, ed. Tim Blanning and Hagen Schulze (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 5-18.

86 "General Introduction to Postmodernism". Cla.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2013-08-25.

87 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(arts)

42

find expression in the works of painters like Francoise de Goya, John

Constable, Turner, etc.

1:3:10 Impressionism: The term impressionism applies to a particular,

late 19th century style centering in Paris. It is a 19

th century movement that

originated with a group of Paris-based artists. Their independent

exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s, in

spite of harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France.

The name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work,

Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression of the Rising Sun) which provoked

the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical review published in

the newspaper Le Charivari.88

Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin,

yet visible brush strokes, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its

changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a

crucial element of human perception and experience.89

The development of Impressionism can be considered partly as a

reaction by artists to the challenge presented by photography, which

seemed to devalue the artist‘s skill in reproducing reality. Both portrait

and landscape paintings were deemed somewhat deficient and lacking in

88

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism

89 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism

43

truth as photography ―produced life-like images much more efficiently

and reliably.90

Frederic Bazille, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul

Cezanne, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro are some of the main

Impressionists.

1:3:11 Post-Impressionism: Post-Impressionism is the term coined by

the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the

development of French art since Manet.91

Fry used the term when he

organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists.92

Post-

Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they

continued using vivid colours, often thick application of paint, and real-

life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric

forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or

arbitrary colour.93

Breaking free of the naturalism of Impressionism in the late 1880‘s,

a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing

emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes

90

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism

91 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/postimpressionism.

92 Voorhies, James. "Post-Impressionism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poim/hd_poim.htm

(October 2004)

93 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/postimpressionism.

44

of deeper symbolism.94

Through the use of simplified colors and definitive

forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as

abstract tendencies. Among the nascent generation of artists responding to

Impressionism, Paul Gauguin, (1848–1903), Georges Seurat (1859–

1891), Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), and the eldest of the group, Paul

Cézanne, (1839–1906), followed diverse stylistic paths in search of

authentic intellectual and artistic achievements. These artists, often

working independently, are today called Post-Impressionists.95

Although

they did not view themselves as part of a collective movement at the time,

Roger Fry (1866–1934), critic and artist, broadly categorized them as

"Post-Impressionists," a term that he coined in his seminal

exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists installed at the Grafton

Galleries in London in 1910.96

1:3:12 Modernism: Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along

with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching

transformations in Western society in the late 19th and early 20

th centuries.

The factors that shaped Modernism was, the development of

modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed by

94

Voorhies, James. "Post-Impressionism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poim/hd_poim.htm (October 2004)

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid.

45

World War I. Modernism rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking,

and many modernists rejected religious beliefs.97

A notable characteristic of Modernism is self-consciousness, which

often led to experiments with form, along with the use of techniques that

draw attention to the processes and materials used in creating a painting,

poem, etc.98

According to one critic, Modernism developed out of

Romanticism‘s revolt against the effects of the Industrial Revolution and

bourgeois values. Van Gogh, Cezanne, Ganguin and Seurat were some

prominent painters of Modernism.

1:3:13 Post Modernism: Postmodern art is a body of art movements that

sought to contradict some aspects of modernism or some aspects that

emerged or developed in its aftermath. In general, movements such

as Inter media, Installation art, Conceptual Art and Multimedia,

particularly involving video are described as postmodern.99

There are

several characteristics which lend art to being postmodern; these include

bricolage, the use of words prominently as the central artistic

element, collage, simplification, appropriation, performance art, the

97

Pericles Lewis, Modernism, Nationalism, and the Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2000). pp 38–

39.

98 Gardner, Helen, Horst De la Croix, Richard G. Tansey, and Diane Kirkpatrick. Gardner's Art Through

the Ages (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1991). ISBN 0-15-503770-6. p. 953.

99 www.mediander.com/connects/192127/postmodern-art

46

recycling of past styles and themes in a modern-day context, as well as the

break-up of the barrier between fine and high arts and low art and popular

culture. 100

In painting, postmodernism reintroduced representation. Traditional

techniques and subject matter have returned in art. It has even been argued

that much of what is called postmodern today, the latest avant-gardism,

should still be classified as modern art.101

1:3:14 Indian Paintings: Indian art has a very long and an illustrious

history. Painting as an art form has flourished in India from very early

periods as is evident from various epics and other literary sources; and

also from the remnants that have somehow survived the test of time,

vagaries of nature and vandalism- wanton or otherwise caused by humans.

The main characteristic of Indian art has been its remarkable unity

and consistency.102

Though there were regional variations and individual

styles, the works produced in diverse geographical and cultural regions

shared certain common values, concepts and techniques. And, all those

varied manifestations were inspired by a common general principle. The

regional idioms, nevertheless, contributed to the richness of Indian art, and

100

Ideas About Art, Desmond, Kathleen K. John Wiley & Sons, 2011, p.148

101 liewyushin086.blogspot.com/2014/01/postmodern-art.html

102 Blog of Shreenivasarao S.

47

their mutual influences gave birth to multi-faceted development of Indian

art.103

That was true not merely of the classical paintings but also of the art

works and paintings created by the village craftsmen and artists. Since

there never was a nodal body to preserve and develop art in India, it was

the initiative, enterprise and imagination of those dedicated humble artists

that kept alive the ancient traditions. Their exquisite themes inspired by

life around them, painted in their homemade bright colors employing

indigenous styles have enriched the cultural diversity of India.104

Another significant feature of the ancient Indian art was its vision of

life and its world view. That inward vision and a sense of peace and

tranquillity are its hallmarks.105

The old paintings serve as a valuable

record of the thoughts and aspirations of our ancients. These ancient arts

present the world as a great harmony that blends seamlessly into the whole

of creation. It recognizes the oneness that exists in all of us, in the animals,

the flowers, the trees, the leaves and even in the breeze which moves the

leaves.All that is seen as a manifestation of that one.

The history of Indian painting is as old as Indian culture itself.

Evidences of prehistoric painting in India are scanty, but the few remains

103

Blog of Shreenivasarao S.

104 Blog of Shreenivasarao S.

105 Blog of Shreenivasarao S.

48

that have been discovered are the hunting scenes crudely drawn on the

walls of a group of caves in the Kaimur Range of Central India and in the

Vindhya Hills.106

Some records of prehistoric paintings are found in Raigarh State of

the Central Provinces.107

The figures drawn on the cave walls are those of

human beings and animals. On one wall there is a picture which depicts a

buffalo badly wounded with spears, surrounded by the hunters.108

As the

prehistoric men were food gatherers and depended on hunting…. It is

clearly evident that whatever they painted was closely related to their day

to day life.

Although many of these drawings are now unintelligible, enough of

them have been identified to show that this primitive artist had a natural

gift for artistic expression.

Some of the ancient paintings are also found in the Mirzapur district

of U. P. The theme is hunting scenes. All these drawings bear a

remarkable resemblance to the famous rock-shelter paintings of Cogul in

Spain.109

106

Brown Perci, Indian Painting, Oxford university, 1927, p.15

107 Ibid. p. 16

108 Ibid. p. 15

109 Ibid. p.16

49

The origin of painting in India is related in a legend. According to

it, god Brahma taught a king how to bring back to life the dead son of a

Brahman, by executing a portrait of the deceased, which he endowed with

life, and so made an efficient substitute for the dead youth whom Yama,

the god of death, refused to give up.110

Portraiture was the earliest and most popular form of painting.

There is a story related to this in the epic age of Indian history. The

Princess Usha dreamt that a beautiful youth appeared and accompanied

her in her walk abroad. She confided this to one of her maids-of-honour,

Chitralekha (literally a picture) who had a natural gift for portraiture. This

maid offered to relieve the anxiety of her mistress by painting the portraits

of all the deities and great men of the time, so that the subject of the dream

might be identified. As soon as Usha saw the likeness of Aniruddha, the

grandson of Krishna, the youth of her vision was revealed to her. This

artistic incident subsequently led to their nuptials. The useful gift of being

able to reproduce from memeorythe likeness of a person, forms the subject

of several ancient Indian legends.111

According to Laufer, ―Indian painting originated at King‘s Courts

and not as a result of priestly influence.

110

Brown Perci, opcit. P. 19

111 Ibid. p. 19

50

Indian paintings are based on six canons which are termed as ‗six

limbs‘112

of Indian painting. These six limbs were put into practice by

Indian artists, and are the basic principles on which their art was founded.

These six limbs are:

1. Rupabheda—the knowledge of appearances.

2. Pramanam—Correct perception, measure and structure.

3. Bhavya—Action of feelings on forms.

4. LavanyaYojanam—Infusion of grace, artistic representation.

5. Sadrishyam—similitude.

6. Varnikabhanga—Artistic manner of using the brush and colours.

The Buddhist frescoes at Ajanta113

are based on these six principles

of painting. The first of these Rupabheda refers to the study of nature,

knowledge of the figure, landscape and architecture. Pramanam is

proportion, anatomy. Bhava deals with the effect of the mind on the body.

Lavanya Yojanam is gracefulness and beauty. Sadrishyam is simply truth.

Varnikabhanga means correct use of colour and technique.

The Buddhist frescoes demonstrate that all these laws were

faithfully followed. ―Posed in impressive and stately attitudes, the

contours of these figures are superb, and reveal a keen perception of the

112

Coomaraswamy, Anand K. , History of Indian and Indonesian Art, New Delhi, 1971, p. 88

113 See Plate No.21

51

beauty of form. There is no undue striving after academic or anatomical

exactitude. The drawing is spontaneous and unrestrained. Each figure

naturally falls into its correct place, and unaffectedly takes its right

position in the general composition. In sentiment the art is intensely

emotional, and expressive.‖114

In later age, the Indian artists continued to apply these traditional

principles.

With the decay of Buddhism in India in the seventh century A. D.,

the art of painting began to decline and there was a gap of nearly thousand

years before this art again revived its old glory.

After the decline of Buddhist art, very few paintings were found.

During the 12th

century, several paintings were done on palm leaves. Some

Jain book illustrations of the 15th century and some remains of

Brahmanical frescoes at Ellora were found.115

The decline of Indian painting during this period was due to

unsettled political conditions. At the same time, there was foreign

invasion. In its religious aspect too India was becoming transformed, on

the one hand by the decline of Buddhism and the steady rise of Hinduism,

and, on the other, by the advent of and growth of Islam.

114

Brown Perci, opcit. P. 72

115 See Plate No.22

52

Brahmanism succeeded Buddhism, and during this period there was

no great work of painting. But in the field of sculpture and architecture,

the artist attained a high level. The greatest monuments of Elephanta and

Ellora show the grandest efforts made by the artists of that period.

1:3:15 Mughal School: At the end of the 14th

century, northern India

was invaded by hordes of the Turko-Mongolian conqueror, Timur, the

ancestor of the later Mughal Emperors.

Under the Mughal dynasty, the art of painting burst out in a new,

rich flower. There was a barren desert of nearly a thousand years

intervening between the peaks of the 7th century Ajanta art and the rise of

the Mughal miniature.

The Mughal School of painting in India coincides with the period of

the Mughal dynasty. It came into prominence during the reign of Akbar in

the latter half of the 16th century and during the reign of Jehangir it was at

its highest mark. The reign of his successor, Shah Jahan, marks the first

step in its decline, while under the unsympathetic rule of Aurangzeb its

death knell was rung.

The ancestral home of Mughal painting was originally in

Samarkand and Herat, where, under the Timurid Kings in the 15th

century,

Persian art reached its zenith. Under the protection of Sultan Husain of

53

Khurasan, Bihzad, known as the ―Raphael of the East‖116

worked. He was

the greatest artist of the time.

Fundamentally, the Mughal School of painting was exotic, just as

the Mughals themselves were aliens in India. But in the same way as that

race gradually became absorbed into the people of India, so Mughal

painting came to be regarded as an integral part of the art of India. Several

indigenous painters of the country worked for the Mughal Emperor.

Basawan, Daswanth and Kesudasa were the famous Hindu painters at the

court of Akbar. With the combined efforts of both the Mughal and Indian

painters the Mughal School of painting was developed. The paintings

that came into being under the patronage of the Mughal Emperors are

termed as Mughal Miniatures‘.117

Babar founded the Mughal dynasty in 1526. He admired the

painting of Herat masters -Bihzad and Shah Musannir. But he had no time

to learn this art or to promote it.

Humayun took an interest in painting. He employed two artists, Mir

Sayyid Ali of Tabriz and Abdus Samad of Shiraz118

at his court in Kabul.

These two painters accompanied him to India when he regained his throne

in 1555.

116

Brown Perci, op. cit. p. 48.

117Lubar Hajek, Indian Miniatures of the Moghul School, London, 1960, p. 14

118 Barret Douglas and Gray Basil, Treasures of Asia, Paintings of India, Ohio,1963, p. 78

54

Mir Sayyid Ali was commissioned to supervise the illustration of

the romance of Amir Hamzah (Dastan-i-Amir Hamzah)119

in twelve

volumes of hundred folios each. ―Sixty of these illustrations painted in

tempera colours on prepared cotton cloth are in Vienna and twenty five of

them in the Indian Museum, South Kensington‖.120

After Humayun‘s death Mir Sayyid Ali continued to work at the

court of Akbar.121

According to Perci Brown, the technique and quality of

early Mughal painting, was an offshoot of the Safavid School, in the

handiwork of artists trained in the school of Bihzad.122

Akbar‘s reign (1556-1605) brought a new era in Indian miniature

painting. He came to the throne when he was thirteen years old. After he

consolidated his position in north India, he built a new capital at Fatehpur

Sikri. After 1570, when the economy and finances of the Empire was

reorganized, the Imperial ateliers123

was constructed in which the Mughal

miniaturists worked. He collected artists from India and Persia.

119

See Plate No. 23

120 Smith Vincent A, A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, Oxford Press, 1930, pp. 206-207.

121 Ibid. p.207.

122 Brown Perci, op. cit. p.56.

123 Lubar Hajek, Indian Miniatures of the Moghul School, London, 1960, p. 15

55

During the reign of Akbar the Imperial Court, apart from being the

center of administrative authority to manage and rule the vast Mughal

Empire also emerged as a center of cultural excellence.

Abdus Samad, a Persian master, had instructed Akbar in drawing

and painting.124

A miniature signed by Abdus Samad, preserved in the

Gulistan Library in Tehran, depicts young Akbar presenting a painting to

his father, Humayun.125

The Imperial ateliers, established by Akbar in India, were under the

supervision of two Persian masters, Mir Sayyed Ali and Abdus Samad.

More than a hundred painters were employed, most of them being Hindus

from Gujarat, Gwalior and Kashmir, who gave birth to a new school of

painting, popularly known as the Mughal School of miniature paintings.

One of the first productions of the Mughal School was the

Hamzanama or Dastan-i-Amir Hamza series. This, according to Badayuni,

the Court historian of Akbar, was started in 1567 and completed in 1582

(almost fifteen years). The Hamzanama, stories of Amir Hamza, an uncle

of the Prophet, were illustrated by Mir Sayyid Ali. The paintings of the

Hamzanama are of large size, measuring about 20x27‖, and were painted

on cloth.126

In their illustrations, the Mughal painters equal the lively

124

Beach, Milo Cleveland, Early Mughal Painting, Harvard University Press, 1987, p. 49. See Plate No.

125 Barret and Gray, opcit. P.78 & See Plate No.24.

126 Barret and Gray, opcit. P.78

56

imagination of the story tellers by the vividness and exuberance of their

pictorial expression. The illustrations are brimming over with action,

objects, people, trees and animals.127

They are in the Persian Safavi style

with brilliant red, blue and green colours predominating.

In 1582, Akbar ordered the illustration of Razm-nama, the Persian

translation of the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. In the same year, Gulistan

(The Rose Garden) a landmark of Persian literature, written by Sadi128

was

produced at Fatehpur Sikri by Muhammad Husayr-al-Kashmiri.129

The development of Mughal painting was due to Akbar. He

possessed a library of 24,000 manuscripts, many of which were illustrated,

and his biographer, Abul Fazal records him as saying (with special

reference to the orthodox Musalman prejudice against the representation

of living things) ―There are many that hate paintings, but such men I

dislike. It appears to me as if a painter had quite peculiar means of

recognizing God, for a painter, in sketching anything that has life, and in

devising the limbs one after another, must come to feel that he cannot

bestow a soul upon his work, and is thus forced to thank God, the giver of

life, and will thus increase his wisdom.‖130

127

Lubar Hajek, Indian Miniatures, op cit. P. 16

128 Franklin Lewis, “Golestan-E-Sa’Di” Encyclopedia Iranica, 2001

129 Barret and Gray, op cit. P. 82

130 Museum of Fine Art Bulletin, vol. XVI, p. 4

57

The prominent painters of Akbar‘s Court were Farrukh, Abdul-al-

Samad, Mir Sayyid Ali, Basawan, Daswanth and Kesudasa.

Jahangir (1605-27): Jahangir had an artistic inclination and during his

reign Mughal painting developed further. Jahangir admired portraits. Two

fine examples of group portraits are the scene of an audience now in the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the scenes of the weighing ceremony of

Prince Khurram (later Shahjahan), now in the British Museum. One of the

imperial artists, Mansur specialized in the painting of animals and birds.131

Many court painters captured scenes of Jahangir‘s hunting skill.

Portraiture and hunting scenes were the favorite subject of this

time132

, but the more scientific fields of botany and natural history were

object of special study. Unusual flowers or rarer animals133

were ordered

to be copied by the Emperor. Western paintings were also arriving in the

country during this period.

The reign of his successor, Shah Jahan, marks the first steps in its

decline, while under the unsympathetic rule of Aurangzeb its death- knell

was rung.

131

Brown Perci, op. cit. p. 51.

132 See Plate No. 25

133 See Plate No. 26a&26b.

58

The ancestral home of Mughal painting was originally in

Samarkand and Herat, where, under the Timurid Kings in the 15th

century,

Persian art reached its zenith.

One outstanding feature of the painting of the Mughal is its

devotion to the delineation of likenesses. Realism is its key-note, and

subjects are largely drawn from incidents connected with the magnificent

court life.134

In scale the Mughal picture is small, never attaining the

dignity and size of the Buddhist frescoes.

A large number of the miniature paintings of the Mughal Period are

portraits, but at the same time the subjects are of general order. These are

mainly scenes of actual life, hunting and fighting, battles and sieges,

historical episodes, darbar, mythological stories, zoology, botany and very

occasionally, religious incidents. Jahangir specially commissioned some

of his court artists to make copies of rare birds and animals which were

brought to the capital; probably the best illustration of the series was that

of Turkey Cock,135

which is preserved in the Indian Museum. Incidents of

the chase were favorite subjects for the Mughal artist these were executed

at the command of his royal patron, who desired to have some permanent

record of his powers in the field of sports.

134

Brown Perci, op. cit. p. 50.and See Plate No.27.

135 See Plate No.28.

Chapter-II

Colonial Painting-I

59

Colonial Painting-I

Almost from the very beginning, India had to face a long succession

of foreign invasions. Wave after wave of aggressors came and swept

across her fertile land. The story of freedom struggle can be said to have

begun the day the invader set his foot on the Indian soil. Before the

coming of the Europeans, the foreigners who came to India either took its

wealth with them or they assimilated with the Indians. India became their

home and they themselves became part of Indian life.

The nature of British conquest of India varies fundamentally from

that of the Muslims also. The Muslim invaders settled within the frontiers

of India and made themselves part of India‘s life. During the British

conquest, the political and economic system of India was in the hands of

the British who were completely alien to India.

The British conquest of India was neither sudden nor accidental. It

was in the 17th

century that the Europeans for the first time began taking

interest in India on any large scale. The most important early entrants were

the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the British. None of them came

to India to settle here. They were all attracted by India‘s fabulous wealth.

They came as trading companies in order to increase trade with India. Till

the beginning of the 18th century, none of the European Companies tried to

60

interfere in its politics. Their foremost objective was to concentrate on

trade and gain the maximum profit. During this time the power, prosperity

and prestige of the Moghul Empire was at its height.

Like other Europeans, the British also first came to India as a

trading company. The Company, which later came to be known as the

East India Company, was incorporated in London on December 31st1600,

under a Charter of Queen Elizabeth136

. But it soon assumed political

power. After the death of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor in 1707, the

situation deteriorated. The Empire began to disintegrate. Central authority

weakened. Internal fights for supremacy followed. The East India

Company took advantage of the situation. By playing one prince against

the other and lending the support of its armies sometimes to this and

sometimes to that side, the Company increased its power and influence in

the Indian sub-continent.

The victory at Plassey in 1757 was the starting point of the British

conquest in India. The Company became the de facto sovereign power in

Bengal and thus the foundation of the British Empire was laid in India.

Victory in the Battle of Buxar, 1764, made the British almost supreme in

136

The Register of Letters &c. of the Governour and Company of Merchants of London Trading Into the

East Indies, 1600-1619, Letter book, East India Company Edit. Sir George Christopher Molesworth

Birdwood, Molesworth, Sir William Foster, pub by B. Quaritch, 1893.

61

North India. The helpless and powerless Mughal Emperor gave the British

the right to collect revenues in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Company

was also to control the maintenance of military forces. The Nawab was

left with responsibilities of maintenance of law and order and criminal

justice. There was a divorce between power and responsibility. The dual

government continued from 1765 to 1772. During this period India

suffered the worst kind of exploitation. According to Sir Lewis, a Member

of the British Parliament, ―No civilized government ever existed on the

face of this earth which was more corrupt, more perfidious and more

rapacious than the government of the East India Company from 1765 to

1772‖.137

According to Gordon Sanderson, ―The province of Bengal, until the

advent of the British, was undoubtedly the richest land in the world. No

famine was ever recorded by history to have entered the rich and populous

area. For millennia, Bengal had been famous for its continuous and

abundant prosperity. British Imperialism needed only thirteen years to

bring destruction, destitution, death and famine to the Province of

Bengal.‖138

137

Kashyap Subhash C, Savita D. Kashyap, Tryst with Freedom a Pictorial Saga, National Publishing House, New Delhi, 1973, p. 3.

138 Ibid. p. 3.

62

During 1769-70, the first serious famine occurred in Bengal, during

which one-third of the population died due to starvation or diseases

caused thereby. The famine had created such pitiable conditions that in

several places people tried to fight hunger and death by eating dead

bodies; while the houses and godowns of the agents of the Company were

filled with grains, the farmers were unable to procure even seed for their

next sowing. Every day, thousands of corpses could be seen floating

through the Hooghly to the sea. Streets and bazaars of Calcutta were

littered with bodies of the dead and the dying. The survivors did not have

enough energy left to be able to carry the corpses to the river or to the

cremation ground and save them from being clawed and eaten up by

vultures and jackals in broad daylight.‖139

For nearly fifteen years after the battle of Plassey, the Company

servants cared more for their private trade than of the E. I. C.

In 1773, the Regulating Act was passed by the British Parliament

which, for the first time asserted its right to regulate the Company. During

this time, Warren Hastings became the Governor-General of India. He

firmly led the foundation of British rule in India.

By 1857, almost all the Indian Territory came under the control of

the East India Company. ―East India Company was in complete control of

139

Kashyap Subhash C, Savita D. Kashyap, Tryst with Freedom a Pictorial Saga, National Publishing House, New Delhi, 1973, pp. 3-4

63

India, ruling about three-fifth of the country directly and the remaining

two-fifth indirectly through subservient Indian Princes.‖140

The annexation

policy of Lord Dalhousie resulted in the Sepoy Mutiny. Although Indians

were against foreign domination from the very beginning and they used to

fight against the foreigners, but on many occasions they could not

succeed. This was mainly due to the lack of national sentiment and unity.

Secondly, the Indians trusted the foreigners. But by 1857, the Indians

came to realize that the British were making their own future at the cost of

the Indians. They were exploiting the Indians at every step.

The Indians were subjected to humiliation in politics, social,

economic and even religious matters. In 1818, Sir Thomas Munro wrote:

―Foreign conquerors have treated the natives with violence and often with

great cruelty, but none has treated them with so much scorn as we; none

has stigmatized the whole people as unworthy of trust, as incapable of

honesty, as fit to be employed only where we cannot do without them. It

seems to be not ungenerous, but impolitic, to debase the character of an

entire people fallen under our domination.‖141

Malcolm Lewis (Indian Revolt) had expressed the same view:

―We have denied to the people of the country all that could elevate

them as men; we have insulted their caste; we have abrogated their laws of

inheritance; we have changed their marriage institutions; we have ignored

the most sacred rites of their religion; we have delivered up their pagoda

property to confiscation; we have branded them in official records as

heathens; we have seized the possessions of their native princes and

140

K. A. Nilakanta Shastri, C. Srinivasachari, Life and Culture of the Indian People, Allied publishers, 1966, revised, 1974, p. 54.

141 Kashyap Subhash C, Savita D. Kashyap, Tryst with Freedom a Pictorial Saga, National Publishing

House, New Delhi, 1973, pp. 7-8.

64

collected revenue by means of torture; we have sought to uproot the most

ancient aristocracy of the world and to degrade it to the condition of

pariahs.‖142

There was large discontent among the Indians. They were agitated

against British rule on many counts. This agitation culminated into the

Revolt of 1857. The Revolt failed and it left bitter memories and created a

social estrangement between the English and the Indians. But it remains a

glorious chapter in the struggle for freedom. It paved the way for India‘s

freedom. The mutiny had its political impact. The East India Company

was abolished and the Government of India came directly under the

Crown. The Queen of England became the Empress of India and by the

Proclamation of 1858, it was said that the British will adopt the policy of

non-interference in the internal matters of India. Lord Canning took over

as the first Viceroy of India. The fight for freedom once begun never ends.

The failure of the Revolt made the people of India realize the fact that the

archaic methods of rebellion were no longer effective under this system,

and with the emergence of Indian National Congress, a new technique of

political participation evolved.

During the last decade of the 19th century, the feeling of nationalism

dominated the mind of the Indians. The birth of the Indian National

142

Kashyap Subhash C, Savita D. Kashyap, Tryst with Freedom a Pictorial Saga, National Publishing House, New Delhi, 1973, pp. 7-8.

65

Congress in 1885 proclaimed the advent of a new era, the era of political

unity and the expression of the deliberate will of the people. The Indian

National Congress became a central organ of our society in the struggle

for freedom. Prior to 1885, some important associations such as the

Landholders Society, the British Indian Association, the Bombay

Presidency association, the Madras Mahajan Sabha, the Calcutta Indian

Association and the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, were set up in different parts

of the country to give voice to the resentment of Indians against certain

discriminatory policies of the administration in their own ways.

Nevertheless, from the very beginning the I. N. C. was an all India

organization. It was truly national and secular organization based on the

concept of the unity of India. It brought together the elite of different

communities and provided to them a common platform to give expression

to their urges and aspirations. The Indian National Congress remained a

premier political party during the freedom struggle.

During its early years, the Congress was dominated by the

moderates, but later it was divided into two streams viz. Moderates and

Extremists. Although they were working for the same goal, that is to free

the country from the clutches of the British, the method of their working

was different.

66

In the closing years of the nineteenth and the early years of the

twentieth century, several forces and events combined to give birth to an

extremist movement in Indian politics. In 1905, the partition of Bengal

was announced and the Indian national movement entered its second

phase.

Although the Government argued that the partition was necessary

because the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently

administered by a single provincial government, but the real motive was to

divide the Hindus and the Muslims thus crushing the growth of the

nationalist feeling. The partition led to widespread agitations. The anti-

partition agitation was initiated on August 7, 1905, at the Town Hall,

Calcutta, where a massive demonstration against the partition was

organized. There was a ‗hartal‘ in Calcutta. The ceremony of Raksha

Bandhan was observed with Hindus and Muslims tying Rakhi on one

another‘s wrists as a symbol of unbreakable unity.

The leaders of Bengal felt that mere demonstrations, public

meetings and resolutions were not enough and something more concrete

was needed. The answer was ‗Swadeshi‘ and ‗Boycott‘.

The objective of the Swadeshi movement was two-fold. Firstly,

they wanted to demonstrate their strong opposition to the British policy,

and secondly, they wished to bring their cherished sentiments to the notice

67

of the people in England so that the latter might, in selfinterest, force the

British Government to change the policy of partition.

According to Dr. R. C. Majumdar, Swadeshi completely outgrew

the original conception of promoting Indian industry. It assumed a new

form based upon the exact meaning of the word Swadeshi, i. e. attachment

to everything that was Indian.

The Swadeshi movement activated new trends in the field of culture

also. According to Bipan Chandra, ―it was perhaps in the cultural sphere

that the impact of the Swadeshi movement was most marked. A new type

of nationalist poetry, prose and journalism surcharged with passion and as

well as filled with idealism could be seen.‖143

The Swadeshi movement marked the birth of a new era in Indian

political life. The nation learnt that the only effective guarantee against the

oppressive rule of the British is the vigorous assertion of its will.

Social conditions in India also underwent tremendous alterations

during the same period, probably the greatest changes it had ever known.

Even the conquest of India by the Muslims had not caused any basic

change in the Hindu way of life. By contrast, in the 19th

century, India

gradually moved from the medieval to the modern age. Descriptions of

Indian life, customs and beliefs in the early 19th

century show it as being

143

Chandra Bipin, Indias Freedom Struggle,

68

ridden with obsolete and inhuman practices. A gloomy picture of the blind

faith and poverty of the people is given by historians and travelers, but it

was this age that produced its greatest reformers, thinkers and writers. The

19th century was marked by important reforms, by continuous agitation for

political rights, and by a real hunger for the new education. Perhaps

Indians today are largely unaware of the great battles these courageous

pioneers undertook in order to win the freedom of thought and action we

enjoy today. Their liberal, humane and ethical thought attacked the most

conservative and cruel customs and established modern forms of religion,

scientific studies and democratic rights. They made possible the birth of

an educated and self-conscious middle class.

Thus the 19th century in India was an era of immense change. Every

phase of life was affected by the shifts in political power, economy and

social values. It had its effect on Indian art and culture also.

India has got a very rich cultural tradition. The cultural progress

continued in all ages, in the field of art and other allied branches of

aesthetic creation. In art-minded India, it is difficult to find even the

smallest utensil without some decorative element in it, or a piece of cloth

without some beautiful design at least on the border, or a wall in a house

without some patterns. Art in some form or other cannot be missed in

everyday life even in the remotest corners of a country. But during the 19th

69

century, Indian art reached a state of stagnation. The art situation in 19th

century India has not been given much attention. The educated middle

class, while fully aware of its political weakness and failures, was not so

much aware of the cultural vacuum.

With the disintegration of the Mughal Empire and the establishment

of British rule, the country entered a period of cultural blight. Owing to

lack of patronage, traditional art declined in vigor, conception and

execution. The creativity of the artist was lost in the political-economic

confusion. Less importance was given to the Indian artist.

The new powers which began to rise after the battle of Plassey were

busy in acquiring new territory. They were alien and indifferent towards

Indian culture. But after political stability was established, the traditional

cultural life began to re establish itself. This was the time when the

Western influence began to penetrate into the field of art and other spheres

of life.

With the advent of the British, new developments began in the field

of Indian painting. The paintings of Indian artists attracted the attention of

the English and at the same time, Indian artists were also interested in the

paintings brought by the British. Although there was a great demand for

Indian paintings, the Indian painters were required to depict Indian life

and scenes according to the taste of the British. Under these

70

circumstances, the Indian artists were bound to adopt the Western

methods. The combination of the Indian and the Western techniques

resulted in the synthetic or the hybrid style.

2:1 Company School of Painting:

Company style or company painting is a term for hybrid Indo-

European style of paintings made in India by Indian artists, many of whom

worked for European patrons in the British East India Company in the

18th& 19

th centuries.

By the end of the 18th century the East India Company had assumed

political and administrative power in India. As the E. I. C. expanded its

purview in South Asia during the late 17th century, a great number of its

employees moved from England to carve out new lives for themselves in

India. As they travelled through the country and encountered unusual flora

and fauna, ancient monuments and exotic new people, they wanted to

capture these images. On the one hand, with the collapse of the Mughal

Empire and gradual break up on the provincial kingdoms, Indian painters

lost their patrons and were looking for new employment. On the other

hand, Company officials were interested in paintings that could capture

the ‗picturesque‘ and ‗exotic‘ aspects of the land, besides recording the

variety in the Indian way of life which they came across. Indian artists of

that time, with declining traditional patronage fulfilled the growing

71

demand for paintings of flora and fauna, landscapes, historical

monuments, durbar scenes, images of native rulers, ceremonies, dance,

music as well as portraits.

Pictures were the best record for the British in India; they were their

most valued possessions of their experiences in India. As the British

travelled through India they came across various crafts, costumes,

festivals, etc. ―Lady Nugent noticed how copper vessels, crockery, rice,

sugar, gods and goddesses, knives, muslins, silks… were all displayed

together—all sorts of coloured turbans and dresses, and all sorts of

coloured people—the crowd immense—the sacred Brahmin bull walking

about and mixing with the multitude.‖144

Such experiences resulted in vivid impressions but as the British

penetrated more deeply into India; their sense of the exotic was further

increased.

―As they moved through the towns and villages they chanced upon

picturesque festivals—the Muharram with brightly coloured taziyas being

carried through the streets. They saw bridegrooms riding to their marriage,

and corpses carried to the cremation ghats. Each season had its festivals

with processions and with dancing crowds, and every city with its

individual character. Among these, Benares had a special fascination with

its ‗temples, idols, garlands, bells, conches, brahmins and fakeers‘. Every

sight and sound recalled ‗the strange and ancient superstition of the place

and communicated an air of awesome mystery.‖145

144

M. Nugent, A Journal from the Year 1811 till 1815 (London, 1839), i,III

145 Mildred Archer, Company Drawings in the Indian Office, Library Her Majesty’s Stationary Office,

1972, introduction

72

Even Indian landscapes and ‗native characters‘ were not merely

instances of the picturesque; they were news‘146

Captain Mundy, an ADC

to Lord Combermere, the commander-in-Chief of the Bengal army, was

continually noting this during his tours in northern and eastern India

between 1825 and 1830. On returning from his first fair he wrote:

―But in the picturesque properties of the scene, how greatly does

this Indian assemblage transcend our own. Instead of red, rectangular

buildings, square doors, dingy dress of the figures,....we have here domes ,

minarets, fanciful architecture and a costume above all flaunting in colours

set off with weapons and formed from the easy flow of its drapery to

adorn beauty and disguise deformity...every hut, equipage, utensil and

beast of India is picturesque.‖147

Similar qualities imbued festivals and ceremonies. Emily Eden the

sister of Lord Auckland the Governor General from 1836 to 1842 was

particularly fascinated. ―It was one of the prettiest, gayest feasts I have

seen she said of the diwali festival as she drove around cantonments. The

illuminations were so pretty....the sepoys had illuminated there in all

directions and even scattered lamps on the ground all over the plain; it

looked like a large Vauxhall‖148

. The Muslim festival of Muharram with

its glittering towers149

, surrounded with sparkling lanterns and attended by

warlike dancers, was equally impressive. Many a journals also contained

146

Archer and WC Archer, Indian Painting for the British 1770-1880, Oxford, 1955, p-103

147. Mildred Archer, Indian Paintings of the British Period, London, 1992, intro ,p-16

148 .E.Eden, Letters from India (London, 1872), i,255 quoted in Mildred & W.G. Archer 1955, p-5

149 See Plate No.29

73

an entry inspired by scenes such as kali puja, when the statue of the blood

thirsty goddess was worshipped beneath a canopy or carried with flags

through the streets. Even the intricate ritual of Hindu and Muhammadan

weddings with their brilliant processions of lamps and fanciful flowers

induced a mood of romantic wonder. Few of the British can have actually

attended these incidents of Indian life, but as they moved through the

countryside their eyes trained for picturesque views, they must certainly

have stumbled on scenes of ritual or caught at least a partial glimpse. The

same comment applies to two more ceremonies. The first was Hook

Swinging150

when devotees suspended from poles by hooks through their

flesh were whirled above the crowd. The second was Suttee at which the

widow immolated herself on her husband‘s funeral pyre. Between 1815

and 1828 suttees were very numerous in Bengal especially in the districts

around Calcutta. 1818 saw the greatest number with 838 of which 544

were in the Calcutta division alone. In 1828 the year before its abolition

by Bentinck, 309 incidents took place in the same area. The subject indeed

was full of fascination, for the ugly, the barbarous, and the sinister had all

in varying degrees the qualities of the picturesque.151

150

See Plate No. 30

151 Mildred & W.G.Archer , 1955, p-5

74

Yet another spectacle attracted the British–the Indian dance called

‗the nautch‘. Some found it morally repellent or tiresomely monotonous

but many were entranced. Emily Eden in particular was attracted by a

dancer she saw at Benaras in 1837.152

The ancient buildings of India also aroused enthusiasm in minds

alerted to ‗the picturesque‘. The richly carved Hindu temples of South

India impressed the British with their grandeur and complexity, but it was

Mughal architecture of Delhi and Agra which moved them most deeply

with its shining white marble, delicate pietra dura work, pierced screens

and swelling domes. The Taj Mahal, in particular, was viewed through a

romantic haze. The ruined and dilapidated state of many of these

monuments merely added to their glamour. 153

According to Mount Stuart Elphinstone:

―The mosques, the minarets, tombs and gardens of so many

Mohaminedan cities, the marble courts of the palaces of the Mughals,

peopled with the recollections of former times, and surrounded with the

remains of fallen greatness, could not but affect the imagination.‖154

Emotions of this kind made a strong impact on the British in India.

Some were able to convey their excitement through letters, others

published their memoirs. But for many, pictures were the best record and

152

Ibid. p. 6

153. Mildred Archer, 1972, introduction

154 Mildred Archer, 1972, introduction

75

became one of their most valued possessions. John Bellasis, an

enthusiastic amateur artist remarked ―my portfolio of drawings is thought

to be a great treasure here. I take great care of them.‖155

The British who were able to draw used to make drawings for

themselves, but those who could not draw hired Indian artists to paint

according to their taste. These artists provided the British with pictures of

subjects which, whether for emotional, intellectual or purely personal

reasons excited them. Lady Nugent once said ―I intend to get drawings of

everything….. I mean to begin a collection of curiosities of all sorts,

drawings, etc., for my dear children.‖ And the first time she went out in

to…. With a cavalcade of out-runners she wrote, ‗I mean to have a

drawing of this procession.‖156

This shows that the British were anxious to

acquire pictures of the new environment.

But the paintings of Indian artists did not satisfy their new patrons.

They had strong views about the nature of art. George Forster

Complained, ―The Hindoos of this day have a slender knowledge of the

rules of proportion, and none of perspective. They are just imitators and

correct workmen; but they possess merely the glimmerings of genius.‖157

155

Ibid.

156 M. Nugent, op.cit. p. 90

157 Forster, G.,A Journey from Bengal to England, London, vol. I, 1808, p. 93

76

Thomas Twining, a Bengal civilian considered that ―the merit of

their drawing is almost confined to a very accurate imitation of flowers

and birds. I never saw a tolerable landscape or portrait of their execution.

They are very unsuccessful in the art of shading, and seem to have very

little knowledge of the rules of perspective.‖158

Michael Symes was of the view that Indian artists showed no

interest in landscape painting. ―How much I regretted that my draftsman,

though skillful in copying figures and making botanical drawings was

unacquainted with landscape painting and perspective.‖159

But at the same

time he praises the Indian artist. ―Michael Symes himself was delighted

with the way his Bengali draftsman drew the costumes of the Burmese.

―The representations of the costume of the country, I am persuaded, are as

faithful as the pencil can delineate: the native painters of India do not

possess a genius for fiction, or works of fancy; they cannot invent or even

embellish, and they are utterly ignorant of perspective; but they draw

figures and trace every line of a picture with a laborious exactness peculiar

to themselves.‖160

Indian artists soon realized what their new patrons desired. The

painters of this period modified their technique to cater to the British

158

Twining T., (ed. W.H.G. Twining), Travels in India a Hundred years ago, London, 1893, p. 459

159 Quoted in Mildred Archer, 1972, introduction.

160

M .Symes, Quoted in Mildred Archer, 1972, introduction.

77

tastes for academic realism which required the incorporation of Western

academic principles of art, a close representation of visual reality and

perspective. According to Archer, ―certain Indian artists began to work for

the East India Company itself as draftsmen to engineer officers. They

were trained in map-making or in preparing architectural drawings. In this

way they learnt the use of pen and ink and wash.‖161

At the same time, few

European painters, such a J. Zaffany (1733-1810), Tilly Kettle (1735-

1837), T. Daniell (1749-1840), and W. Daniell (1769-1837) came to settle

in India. ―These were the artists who introduced a romanticized Indian

landscape through the medium of easel oil painting. With the introduction

of this academic idiom, the art of anonymous Indian Company painters

evolved, uniquely merging Eastern and Western themes and

techniques.‖162

Indian artists changed their medium and now began to paint with

water colour and also used pencil and European paper. ―They gave up

using gouche, which Europeans found hard…They modified their colour,

tempering brilliant reds, oranges and pinks with somber sepia, indigo blue

and muted greens. Flat patterns with bright patches of colour were

replaced by round forms, light and shade being indicated with soft washes

161

Mildred Archer, 1972, introduction. 162

. Mildred Archer and W.G.Archer, Indian Painting for the British, 1777-1880, Oxford, 1955,p-10

78

of colour.‖163

This type of Indian painting, known as Company, gradually

emerged at all the main centres in India.

Company paintings were first produced in Madras Presidency in

South India. This new style of painting soon disseminated to other parts of

India such as Calcutta Murshidabad Patna, Benaras, Lucknow, Agra,

Delhi, Punjab, and centers in Western India. The favourite subjects were

costumes, trades, crafts, methods of transport and festivals.

2:1:1Madras: During the first half of the 18th century Madras was the

most important British settlement. According to Archer during this time

about 78164

paintings were made by an Indian artist for Nicolas Manucci

who wrote Staria do Mogor and wanted illustrations for his book. The

illustrations include Hindu Gods and Goddess ceremonies and religious

festivals men and women of different castes.165

These paintings were of

mixed style, certain characteristics, of Golconda Paintings of the early 17th

century are found in these paintings. At the same time there was European

influence because they were painted on European papers in water colour

in shades of grey, brown dull green, red. The paintings had Indian themes

with European technique.

163

Mildred Archer, 1992, introduction, p. 6

164 Mildred Archer, Company Paintings, Indian Paintings of the British Period, Victoria and Albert

Museum, London, 1992, p-introduction-15

165 Ibid. p. 15

79

Although the artists were Indian, the themes of these paintings

appeal to a European eye. A precedent for the genre and conventions of

company painting is an album of water colours dated between 1533 and

1546 in the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome. The 141 illustration depict

the customs and costumes of the native peoples inhabiting the lands

occupied by the vast Portuguese maritime empire. Like the later company

paintings, a large proportion of this earlier album‘s illustrations show a

standing man and women, who serve as representative examples of a

social group or occupation while other, depict deities and festivals.166

By the 17th

century Europeans in India were already collecting

paintings by Indian artists and commissioning works from them. The

paintings acquired by the Italian traveller Niccolao Manucci (1639-1717)

in Golconda and Madras between 1685 and 1705 and now at the

Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Library of San Marco in Venice

similarly demonstrate the accommodation of European tastes and curiosity

in subject matter.167

2:1:2 Tanjore: In Tanjore the artists of the Moochy caste168

produced

paintings for European. Earlier the style and techniques were

166

Archer Mildred, 1992, pp 12-13

167 Archer Mildred, ‘Company Painting in South India: the Early Collections of Niccolao Manucci’, in

Apollo, 1970, pp 104-113

168 Archer Mildred, 1972, p 21

80

predominantly Indian but as British power increased, European style

began to influence painting. According to Archer the Tanjore Raja

themselves assisted in the spread of European influence. Raja Sarabhoji

had Dunish tutors from whom he learnt to draw in European manner.169

Archer further state that the Raja used to present sets of paintings made

under his supervision to his guests and to British residents. Sarabhoji‘s son

Sivaji (1832-53) continued this practice. He had interest in architecture

and in 1836; he became a founder member of the Royal Institute of British

Architects. He presented the Institute ten drawings of his palace and of

local temples, which were executed in a mixed Indian-British style.170

2:1:3 Murshidabad: In Bengal Presidency, paintings, similar in subject

matter to that of paintings in South India were developed for the British in

the first half of the 18th

century. In 1750, Murshidabad held a predominant

position in Eastern India and it was here that the paintings for the British

by Indian artists first developed. This style was originated in Murshidabad

because it was the capital of Mughal province. Before the advent of

Europeans the Nawab was the ruler of Murshidabad, who used to

commission artists for decorating the walls of their palace. Portraits and

scenes of court life were also produced for the Nawabs. After the death of

169

Archer Mildred, 1992, p. 44

170 Archer Mildred, 1972, p. 23

81

Nawab Alivardi Khan in 1756, the power of Nawabs began to decline due

to administrative weakness. By 1760, British gradually gained control on

Eastern India and Balance of Power was shifted. With the gradual increase

in power of Company more Britishers were attracted towards

Murshidabad because it was one of the largest trading centres in Bengal

Presidency. A British factory was established at Kasimbazar, barracks

were constructed at Berhampore. Many officers began to come to

Murshidabad and a British Resident was appointed to Nawab‘s Darbar.

Mursidabad had been gradually but completely transformed. And

with the decline of Mugal power the artist lost their patronage and they

started working for British in order to sustain their livelihood. The artist

had to learn a new style influenced by the English picturesque movement

for their new patrons.

The first paintings executed for the British at Mursidabad were

portrait miniatures in Mughal style. The artist made portraits of Mugal and

Murshidabd rulers for British in their taste. ―Water colour on English

paper in pale blues and green took the place of bright gouche.‖171

Some of

the portraits, probably painted about 1782, ―depict Englishmen in cocked

hats and queues, reclining on cushions with hookahs and pan- boxes to

171

Archer Mildred, 1972, p 60

82

hand. They also show English ladies with elaborately dressed hair and

voluminous skirts sitting straight-backed on their ivory chairs.‖172

According to Archer, ―in Victoria and Albert Museum, there is a

portrait of company official, William Fullerton, a Scottish surgeon, who

resided in India from 1744 to 1766. The portrait was made by the famous

artist Dip Chand. His portrait shows him reclining on a terrace, smoking

hooka. He is attended by servants and is talking to an Indian visitor.‖173

The portrait of William Fullerton shows him fully immersed in the life

style of his new homeland.

Besides, portrait artists also painted pictures depicting various

occupations and costumes of local people like the milk-women, the butter

maker, the vegetable seller, the barber.174

The earlier style of the Murshidabad artist was derived from

Mughal miniature, but by the turn of century, paintings were influenced by

western techniques therefore new style developed. Large scenes were

produced showing the Nawabs of Murshidabad or Lucknow in various

situations. A set in Victoria and Albert museum shows Nawab Mubarak-

ud-Daula of Murshidabad seated with his son and the British Resident.175

172

Ibid.

173 Archer Mildred, 1992, p 76 & Plate No. 31

174 Archer Mildred, 1992.

175 Archer Mildred, 1992, p 79

83

Another picture shows the same Nawab proceeding for prayers at the

Mani Bagum‘s Mosque on the occasion of Id.176

Other shows Nawab

Asaf-ud-Daula listening to music or celebrating Muhrram festival in the

Great Imambara Lucknow. Many other festival and ceremonies were also

depicted for example Hook-Swing, Muharram, Holi, Chait and Hindu and

Muslim marriages.177

Thus the pictures which were made at Murshidabad showed the

popular subjects of costumes, occupations, ceremonies, festivals and mode

of transport.

2:1:4 Calcutta:-Before 1773 Calcutta was a small town in Bengal. In

1759 when the Nawab of Murshidabad was defeated and East India

Company obtained its jurisdiction. In 1773 Calcutta became the capital of

British India. When this British settlement was growing in size and

importance, Indian culture in cities like Murshidabad, Dacca, and Patna

began to decline. Artist who had worked at the courts of the Mughal lost

their patronage. Some of them migrated to Calcutta in the hope of finding

work with the new rulers. Calcutta was among the early production

centres, as the site of one of the oldest British trade house.

176

Archer Mildred, 1992, p 80

177 Ibid. p.74. & See Plate No.32

84

The city‘s most enthusiastic patrons were Lord Impey, chief justice

of the high court from 1777 to 1783, his wife, and the Marquess

Wellesley,178

who served as governor general from 1798 to 1805. Both

had collected large menageries and hired artists to paint birds and animals.

Indian artists were being employed for the painting of natural history

subjects. Zain-al-Din, Ram Das and Bhawani Das, formally Patna artists,

worked for the chief justice.179

In addition to private patronage, a number

of artists also found employment with East India Company, when

company established a Botanical garden in the city. These artists were

engaged on official work of various kinds, some became specialists in

natural history drawings for Botanical Garden in Calcutta, other made

maps and drawings of antiquities for surveys.180

By the turn of the century, however, the commonest employment

for the Calcutta artist was of yet another character, the making of sets of

drawings of Indian life, scenery and monuments for sale to British visitors

and residents. At Murshidabad these sets often focussed on castes,

costumes, occupations, transport methods and festivals, but at Calcutta a

178

Archer Mildred, 1992, pp 96-99

179 Archer Mildred, 1972, p

180 Sardar, Marika. "Company Painting in Nineteenth-Century India". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art

History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cpin/hd_cpin.htm (October 2004)

85

new type of subject was developed the illustration of monuments,

especially Mughal, with which the British were coming into contact.

Certain Europeans conventions such as large format, the water

colour technique and use of European paper, sombre tones and elongated

figures were found in Murshidabad paintings. At Calcutta the influence of

these conventions was stronger, painters became more aware of European

taste because professional British artists who came to India spent much of

their time in Presidency capital and Indian painters saw their works and

also got acquainted with them due to availability of illustrated books. In

one of his articles Archer had mentioned that the wealthier inhabitants of

Calcutta had libraries and frequently subscribed to the lavish publications

of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth centuries which were

illustrated with coloured engravings.181

According to Archer many

Calcutta residents possessed books such as William Hodges‘ Select Views

(1785-88) and Thomas and William Daniell‘s Oriental Scenery (1795-

1808). In 1788, Thomas Daniell wrote to Ozias Humphry saying that ‗the

commonest bazaar is full of prints – and Hodges‘ Indian Views are selling

by cart loads.‘182

Calcutta artists probably acquired examples from

Hodges‘ illustration.

181

Archer Mildred, 1972, p. 73

182 Archer Mildred, 1972, p 73

86

Shaikh Muhammad Amir was the famous Calcutta artist,183

who

produced various sets of figures notable for their dignified postures and

subtle composition. When engaged, he would paint a set of pictures for the

patron, including his house, carriage, horses and servants.184

2:1:5 Lucknow: - While the company was consolidating its rule in

Eastern India, events in Oudh were inducing the Europeans to come first

to Faizabad and then to Lucknow.

Company painting in Oudh developed on individual lines. This was

largely because the European communities in Faizabad and later in

Lucknow differed greatly from the cities which came under direct British

rule. Apart from the British Resident and the Europeans who flocked to

Oudh in late 18th

and early 19th

centuries were adventurers and tradesmen

looking for quick fortunes, they were not interested in purchasing

paintings of ‗manners and customs‘ to paste in their scrapbooks or to send

home to relatives in England. There was little demand for paintings of this

kind and only few Europeans like Col. Gentil, Claud Martin, Col Polier

and Richard Johnson were interested in paintings, but they were interested

either in European work of good quality or in oriental culture. They

183

Archer Mildred, 1992, pp. 103-105

184 Ibid. pp. 103-105. & See Plate No. 33.

87

patronised the British professional painters who visited Oudh or collected

Indian and Persian manuscripts and miniatures.

With the decline of patronage at Delhi, Mughal artists had moved to

Faizabad and later to Lucknow, and a school of painting arose which was

marked by feverish brilliance, a fitting expression of Oudh society under

Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula and Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula. Many portraits and

paintings of musical or literary themes with semi-erotic flavour were made

during this time. The artist was patronized by the Nawab. In spite of

encouragements, painters in Oudh were gradually influenced by Western

techniques.

The wealth of the Nawabs attracted a number of British artists to

their courts. As a result, Indian painters at Faizabad, and later in Lucknow,

saw examples of British work. Tilly Kettel was the first British artist to

seek his fortune in India.185

He visited Faizabad during the closing reign of

Nawab Shuja–ud-Daula‘s reign. During his stay he executed six large oil

paintings.186

―One of these, a full length study of the Nawab in a cloth of

gold dress and fur cap, his right hand on his belt, is in Governor‘s House,

Madras. A second depicted Shuja-ud–Daula and four of his sons receiving

an English general, Sir Robert Barker, with his suite of two A.D.C.s, an

185

Mildred & Archer W.G., 1955, p 54

186 Ibid. p. 54

88

officer, and a Persian interpreter187

. The remaining four pictures are

described by Gentil in his memoirs. One was a picture of Shuja receiving

an English general at Faizabad, his elephant and suite in the distance.

Another showed the Nawab in Maratha costume on horseback with a

lance in his hand.‖188

According to Mildred and W.C. Archer, nothing

more is known of these pictures and both seems to have disappeared. The

remaining pair had curious histories. Before leaving for France, Gentil

tells us, he had borrowed all four pictures from Nawab in order that Indian

artists might make miniature copies which he could take back to Europe.

When the first copy was ready- a portrait of the Nawab and his eldest son,

he showed it to Shuja, who liked it so much that he insisted on keeping it

and on the following day presented it to the Resident. When Gentil

protested, Shuja asked him why he needed the picture since his portrait

must surely be engraved upon his heart. Gentil replied that he required it

for showing to his friends, and since the Nawab had given away his copy,

he must be allowed to keep original. Shuja seems to have acquiesced, for

Kettle‘s original painting was brought by Gentil to Europe and presented

to Louis XVI in 1778.189

It is still in the Palace at Versailles. Only one

other of the remaining three pictures was copied for Gentil and this was

187

See Plate No. 34.

188 Ibid. p. 55

189 Mildred & Archer W. G.,1955, p. 55

89

also presented by him to the King of France in 1778. This picture was

made by Nevasi Lal and shows the Nawab and his ten sons standing on a

rich carpet in the Palace.190

Under Asaf-ud–Daula the blatant imitation of British culture was

accelerated. In 1784, John Zoffany came to Lucknow and stayed for five

years during which he made several paintings and drawings for the Nawab

some of which have found their way to India Office and H.M. the Queen‘s

collection.191

Tilly Kettle and Zoffany were followed by Ozias Humphry and

Charles Smith in 1786 and by Thomas and William Daniell who stayed

there from July to October 1789. There was a continuous tradition of

British artists working in Lucknow. Robert Home was the court artist to

Ghazi-ud–din Haider.192

The European artist who probably painted the

most number of Nawabs is John Beechey.193

He painted portraits of

Nawab Nasir-ud-din Haidar, Nawab Mohamad Ali Shah, Nawab Amjad

Ali Shah and Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, after he came to Lucknow in 1828.

He lived in Lucknow till his death in 1852.

190

Mildred & Archer W.C., 1955, P. 55

191 Mildred & Archer W. C. ,1955, P. 56

192 Bhatt Ravi,The Life and Times of the Nawabs of Lucknow, Rupa publication, New Delhi, 2006.

193 Bhatt Ravi, op. cit.

90

For Indian artists accustomed to miniature technique, large oil

paintings of British artists came as a revelation and a shock. Indian

portraits were highly stylised, showing the figure in profile, either

standing or sitting, but in the work of British portrait painters, they saw

figure in natural pose. The size and medium was also different. Indian

painters soon realised that the new medium could add variety to their

stock in trade. Thus Indian painters adopted the European style to suit new

fashion and market.

The work of these European painters started influencing local artists

sometimes at the insistence of the customer. As European artists and their

work was being patronised by the Nawabs, other customers began

insisting that the same kind of work and style be produced from local

artists.

Later on when the British started dominating the scene, artists

began to paint their lifestyle, customs and other events connected with

their presence in India. This style was termed as the Company style. Artist

Mummoo Jan194

is considered as one of the most important artists of this

phase.

2:1:6 Patna:-In 1704 Azim-ush-Shan, second son of the Mughal Emperor

Bahadur Shah (ruled 1707-12), became Subadar of Bengal and made

194

Bhatt Ravi, op. cit.

91

Patna his capital. Although he was killed in 1712 during the war of

succession that followed his father‘s death, Patna had already become the

flourishing capital of a Mughal province. Artists working there painted in

a provincial manner similar to that at Murshidabad.

With the political confusion of the mid-eighteenth century, the city

declined in importance, patronage was reduced and some of the painters

drifted to Calcutta in search of work.

Several painter families of the Kayastha caste appear to have moved

to Patna from Murshidabad195

in about 1760 and they were soon followed

by others. Patna was less affected by the general anarchy than lower

Bengal and, although it can hardly have held out any great prospects for

these artists, life may have seemed less precarious for them there than at

Murshidabad. The East India Company had a factory at Patna and as the

British gradually assumed control in Bengal the city grew increasingly

prosperous and regained its administrative importance. By 1800 it had

become the headquarters of one of the provincial committees into which

the Bengal Presidency had been divided. As at Murshidabad the new

arrivals soon found a new market among the British. Their work

developed on similar lines to that of their caste men in Murshidabad and

was concentrated on the same two types of subject matter festivals and

195

Archer Mildred, 1992, p. 84

92

occupations.196

―In Patna around 1800's, the European community

combined the same aloofness from Indian social life with similar interest

in the picturesque, and it was this latter trait which gradually gave the

Patna painters their expanded market. The city, which must have seemed

at one time only to some extent more established choice to Murshidabad,

was gradually seen to contain a new specialized demand.

The Patna artists began to experiment with compositions of local

Indian scenes…until about 1830 they had become perhaps the most

lucrative branch of Patna paintings. The artists painted whole sets of

'Snapshots' known as 'Firkas'197

there were the familiar figures of the

European compound: washermen, butlers returning from the market,

tailors, and maid servants. They portrayed the various bazaar tradesmen

and craftsmen, peddlers, bangle sellers, butchers, fish-sellers, blacksmiths

etc. They painted familiar town and village sights: elephants, ekkas,

bullock carts, palanquins, pilgrims etc.‖198

A similar demand was being met by the lithographs of Sir Charles

D'Oyly, which portray the same type of the subject. Archer writes‖

D'Oyly's career is of great interest, for while he was posted in Patna he set

up the Bihar Lithography, where he employed a Patna artist, Jairam Das,

196

Archer Mildred, 1972, p. 98

197 See Plate No. 35

198 Archer Mildred, 1992, pp. 85-94

93

as his assistant.199

Several of his books portraying Indian scenes and

costumes, which had a wide circulation amongst Europeans in India, were

made at the Bihar Lithographic Press, and it is interesting to speculate

how far D'Oyly may have influenced the Patna painters in their style and

subject matter, or alternatively, whether they in making competent sepia

drawings of the countryside and sketches for lithographs. Jairam Das

received direct instructions from D'Oyly and were shown a wide range of

work by Europeans. The results were electrifying. Captain Robert Smith

in ―Pictorial Journal of Travels in Hindustan from 1828 to 1833‖ writes

―for productions of the pencil, through, I was informed, the fostering care

of Sir C. D'Oyly, who has endeavoured, and with great success, to inspire

the natives with some of his own pure taste and artist like touches, instead

of the hard dry manner of the Indian painters. I was much pleased with

what I saw‖.200

Captain Smith of 44th regiment was himself a talented

painter as well. In the Patna Museum there is a large scrapbook of his

landscapes, one of which shows himself seated under a huge umbrella

sketching. While he was Collector in Dacca from 1808-1812 he took

lessons from George Chinnery201

the artist, who was also living there.

199

Archer Mildred, 1972, p. 99

200 Ganguly Nanak, Company School of Paintings of Calcutta, Murshidabad, Patna (1750-1850)

,artnewsnviews, 2012,vol. 29

201 Archer Mildred, 1992, p. 84

94

D'Oyly became an opium agent in Patna in 1818 and started living in a

large bungalow at Bankipore on the Ganges. Later it belonged to a Civil

Surgeon whose family lived in it till 1942. D'Oyly published several books

of lithographs and engravings in his lifetime ―The Costumes and Customs

of Modern India‖. ―The European in India‖ was published in London in

1813, followed by ―The Antiquities of Dacca‖ in 1816. In 1828 he

published ―Tom Raw‖, where he refers Chinnery and Griffin as 'the ablest

limner in the land'. ―Bihar Amateur Lithographic Scrapbook was

published in 1828‖.202

Mildred Archer mentioned about it ―in 1830 Views

of Calcutta, sketches of the new road in journey from Calcutta to Gaya‖

was published whereas ―Views of Calcutta and its Environs‖,

Lithographed and Published by Dickinson & Co, London was published in

1848. This was presented to the Victoria Memorial Hall by Mrs. George

Lyell in memory of her husband in 1932.203

―It is not known whether

D'Oyly had any direct contact with the better known Patna painters,

though his assistant, Jairam Das, was related to many of them nor do we

know whether D'Oyly actively influenced the Patna painters, but if a

lithograph such as ―The Nautch‖ (in the Bihar Lithographic Scrapbook) or

202

Archer Mildred, 1992, p. 84

203 Ganguly Nanak, op.cit.

95

some illustrations from ―Costumes of India‖ are compared with the Patna

paintings it is evident that one or the other has been influenced.204

It is possible that some of the stone of these lithographs were

actually drawn on stone by Jairam Das and his Patna assistants from

D'Oyly's drawings. As late as 1880 Bahadur Lal was making free copies

of birds from D'Oyly and Christopher Webb-Smith's books, and in the

Patna Museum there is a copy of the pictures ―Ord Bhawn‖ or Hindu fakir

from D'Oyly's costumes of India.205

D'Oyly may also have had a great

influence on the Patna painters in their choice of subjects. His own subject

matter birds, costumes, scenes of Indian life such as gambling, music, and

dance parties, elephants, a dancing girl holding a dove were identical to

that of Patna pictures, and it is possible that at a time when the Patna

painters were exploring the European market and trying to adapt their

style to European fashions, D'Oyly and his press may well have supplied

them with a significant model‖206

Jairam Das, Jhumak Lal, Fakir Chand Lal, Tuni Lal, Shiva Lal,

Tuni Lal‘s son, Shiva Dayal Lal, Gopal , Gur Sahay Lal, Bani Lal,

Bahadur Lal, Kanhai Lal and Jaigovind Lal were some of the renowned

204

Ibid.

205 Archer Mildred, 1992, p. 94

206 Archer Mildred, Patna Painting, The Royal India Society, 1947.

96

Patna painters.207

They produced sets of pictures illustrating the costumes,

occupations and birds.208

After about 1880, the British patronage declined.

Ishwari Prasad (1870-1950) the talented grandson of Shiva Lal was forced

to work for an Indian landlord, Raja Lachman Seth of Mathura. This

patronage did not provided adequate support and he went to Calcutta to

look for commercial work. When E. B.Havell was posted in Calcutta, he

discovered Ishwari drawing patterns for a European firm which imported

Manchester piece goods. Havell found a place for Ishwari on the staff of

the Calcutta Art School in 1904. Ishwari provided Havell and later Percy

Brown with much information on the technique of Indian miniature

painting. Besides paintings on paper, Company artists in Patna also

produced pictures on mica, adapting to Patna conditions the subjects

popularised in Murshidabad.

2:1:7 Benaras: Until 1775, when it was ceded to the East India Company,

Benaras had formed part of the Mughal province of Oudh. Although

provincial Mughal painting had flourished at Faizabad and Lucknow in

the mid eighteenth century, no well established school of Mughal painting

developed at Benaras. The painters working there appear to have been

207

Archer Mildred, 1972, pp. 99- 101

208 See Plate No. 36

97

nuqqash, bazaar painters, who made designs for textiles or decorated the

walls of houses.209

This was in the early years of the nineteenth century when a number

of British officers had been posted there, a civil station had grown up at

Secrole and cantonments had been built to the north west of the city.

British rule was being extended northwards and more and more travellers

visited Benares as they passed up and down the Ganges and these were to

prove the main patrons of Company paintings.210

In 1815, Dallu Lal (c.1790-c. 1860), whose parents had migrated

from Murshidabad to Patna at about the same time as Sewak Ram, settled

in Benares. He specialised in miniature portraits, some of which are

preserved at Bharat Kala Bhawan, Benares.211

A few of the Benares painters received patronage from some of the

local wealthy landlords, especially from Raja Ishwari Narain Singh (1835-

89). As a young man the Raja had employed Dallu lal and on assuming the

title he engaged him as court artist to train two other painters, Gopal and

Lal Chand. Another artist, Shiva Ram joined them later and was followed

209

Archer Mildred, 1972, p. 133

210 Ibid. p. 133

211 Archer Mildred, 1972, p. 133

98

by his son Suraj. They were employed in making portraits of courtiers and

in painting birds, flowers or other subjects that interested the Raja.212

In style, Benares paintings on paper are very similar to those from Patna

though the figures tend to be stiffer, the colours cruder and the whole

effect heavier and rougher.213

2:1:8 Delhi and Agra:- Delhi and Agra, throughout the Mughal period,

had been great centres of painting. Under Akbar, studios had been

established and many artists had been employed by the Emperor. This

patronage was continued by Jahangir and Shah Jahan as well as by

courtiers and nobleman of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Numerous miniatures were produced, depicting a wide range of subjects:

portraits, genre natural history, historical and literary themes. By the time

the British occupied Delhi, however Mughal patronage had become sadly

reduced and many skilled artsists were looking for employment. It was not

difficult therefore to find painters willing to copy and record Mughul

monuments.

By about 1808, large architectural drawings were however readily

available depicting a whole range of monuments in Agra, Fatehpur Sikri,

Delhi and their neighbourhoods. The Taj Mahal was a favourite subject

212

Ibid. p. 134

213 Archer Mildred, 1992, p. 105

99

with views of the whole mausoleum complex as well as details of the

entrance gateway,214

the mosque and the central chamber with its screen

and two cenotaphs. The Pearl mosque in Agra Fort, the Private

Apartments and Halls of Audience as well, as the tomb of Itimad-ud-daula

across the river were also popular. Akbar‘s mausoleum at Sikandra and

the various buildings in the deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri provided

further subjects. At Delhi, the Fort with its massive ramparts and Halls of

Audience were constantly depicted as well as the Jami Masjid, the Qutab

Minar and the mausoleums of Humayan and Safdar Jang.215

These drawings were clearly influenced by British taste. The

traditional medium of gouache was replaced by pen and ink and water

colour. The pictures were executed on large sheets of whatman paper, in

soft washes of cream, buff grey and pink with touches of gold, green, red

or blue. The whole picture was surrounded by a black border or black

rules. The buildings were shown in perspective against a plain uncoloured

background. The style in many ways was similar to that of British

engineer draftsman of the period and it is significant that these officers

were amongst the first of the British to arrive in Delhi.

214

See Plate No. 37

215 See Plate No. 38

100

Travellers and residents in foreign countries often take home

images of the places and people they have encountered, both as personal

mementos and to inform their friends of their travels. Before the

widespread use of photography in the later 19th century, many Europeans

based in South Asia purchased sets of paintings depicting the flora, fauna,

monuments and peoples of the region. Created by local artists but targeted

specifically at a European audience, these works–often compiled into

albums – constitute a popular genre known as ‗Company‘ paintings. The

creators of Company paintings were often artists who had previously

found employment at the Mughal and other provincial courts of India.

However, by the late 1770s, the influx of Westerners either resident in or

passing through British-ruled India provided them with a new kind of

clientele. Local artists now frequently adapted both their subject matter

and their stylistic conventions to suit this new market. In producing these

works, Indian artists experimented both with new materials, such as pen-

and-ink and watercolours, and new techniques, such as a receding

foreground and shadowing. The quality varies from region to region and

over the course of the century in which Company paintings were produced

some of the finest were the product of direct patronage, while others were

made for the open market in the manner of postcard sets, especially as the

number of Europeans increased significantly in the early 19th century.

101

Such images are often depicted against a flat background, a characteristic

commonly seen in album sets produced between 1820 and 1850. The

figures are detached from their context; there is no intention to represent a

particular person, strata of society, moment or place. Craft activities,

occupations and public religious events are subjects in their own right.

Although the artists were Indian, the themes of these paintings appeal to a

European eye, and their aesthetic conventions mediate between the two.

These characteristics mark ‗Company‘ painting as a distinct phase in

South Asia‘s long pictorial tradition. Commissioned examples of

Company paintings often included portraits of the patron, his family and

servants or depictions of his home. An early 19th century example of a

commissioned album is in the India Office Collection of the British

Library. From the 1860s, Indian artists painting for a European audience

had to compete with the newly introduced medium of photography, which

soon came to dominate ethnographic and architectural studies; by the

1890s, the genre of Company painting had largely disappeared.

102

2:2 Fine Art Education in India and Raja Ravi Varma

2:2:1 Fine Art Education in India: In order to revive the lost glory of

Indian paintings many art schools were opened during 19th

Century. While

there are stray examples of short-lived art schools prior to the 1850s, the

Madras School of Arts and Craft (now renamed Government College of

Fine Arts) was the first institution to experiment with systematic art

training. Established in 1850 by Alexander Hunter, the school began

imparting lessons in subjects ranging from botanical drawings and

lithography to woodcarving and pottery. Soon, yet another art school

opened its doors in Calcutta. Established in 1854 by a group of Bengali

elite under the aegis of the Society for the Promotion of Industrial Art, the

Calcutta School of Art intended ―to develop inventiveness and originality,

to supply skilled draftsmen, designers, engravers, to meet increasing

demand, to provide employment, to promote taste and refinement in the

application of Art, among the upper classes to supply the community with

works of art at a moderate price.

In 1854 the first industrial Art society was set up in Calcutta by

Rajendra Lal Mitra, Jatindra Mohan Tagor and others. By 1864, this was

converted into the ―Calcutta Government College of Art‖216

With the

216

J.C.Bangal, History of Government College of Art and Craft, Centenary Volume, Calcutta College of Art and Crafts, Calcutta, 1966, pp-1-58

103

British Crown taking over the East India Company in 1857, and queen

Victoria becoming Empress of India, the Bombay Government Art

College (Later renamed J.J. School of Art) and the Madras Government

College of Art were also established.

By 1867, 22 Industrial Art Societies and three Government Art

school in the Presidency cities, were established. But the medium of

instruction remained European. The Indian method of painting was

dominated by European.

Although the art schools in Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay began as

private endeavours, they were gradually taken over by the British

government as part of an initiative to gain an increased control over

education in the colony.The department of public instruction was set up in

the three presidencies in 1855 which took control of these institutions. The

Madras School became a government institution in 1854, closely followed

by the Calcutta School in 1858, and the Bombay School in 1864. Aimed

solely at craft education, the Mayo School of Art, the youngest among the

colonial art schools, was established in Lahore with government support in

1875. With government patronage, there was a consorted effort to

redesign art school pedagogy in India, modeling art education in the

colony on South Kensington‘s design pedagogy. For instance, after the

104

Bombay School was taken over by the government, the curriculum was

restructured and South Kensington trained teachers such as Hugh

Stannaus, Michael John Higgins, John Lockwood Kipling and John

Griffiths were appointed. Similarly, with the appointment of the South

Kensington trained Henry Locke as the Principal of the Calcutta School,

the school‘s curriculum was reoriented with the introduction of South

Kensington‘s multi-stage pedagogic model.217

The introduction of art teaching on the basis of the British pattern

had far reaching implication on Indian Paintings because most of the

artists have been receiving their training in these institutions. The British

did not have a clear policy of art education. On one hand they wanted to

develop Indian taste and on the other were to train craftsmen so that the

excellent tradition of Indian crafts might survive and their deterioration

could be stopped. But the actual training given was based on realistic

rendering of objects and copying of western pattern. ―It was the taste of

European art which they wanted to inculcate by training Indians in

Western Representational and Techniques‘.218

217

In 1853, the Department of Science and Art at South Kensington put together the National Course of Art Instruction, a national curriculum for art and design education. Later known as the South Kensington system, the curriculum emphasized training in drawing. Beginning with flat objects and ornamental patterns, students incrementally progressed to more complex objects and drawings from plaster cast Reproductions of Greco-Roman art.

218 Major Trends in Indian Art-Pub by Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi

105

According to Ratan Parimoo, Lord Napier (Governor of Madras) in

1871 recommended ―Indian artist could paint Indian mythology and life

with the power of European art.‖219

One dominating intention of British Art institutions could be

summarised by the following statement from the ‗Report of the Director

of Public Instructions, 1876-1877 ―The object of the institution was to

give native youth of India an idea of men and things in Europe both

present and past, not that they might learn to produce feeble imitation of

European art, but rather they might study European methods of imitation

and apply them to the representation of natural scenery, architectural

monuments ethical varieties and national costumes in their own

country‖220

The fine art education catered to European tastes, in terms of

themes and mediums - perspective, light and shade, portraiture, landscape.

The report further mentioned:

―The fine art education soon supported a package of oils on canvas

and clay modeling with an emphasis or portraiture landscapes, and still

life. This was coupled with a shift towards studding illusionistic – realism

rather than conceptual forms, especially within human figuration. The use

of chiaroscuro instead of flat colour platters of tonality rather than line,

and prospective instead of decorative compositions, were a few of the

other changes.‖221

219

Ratan Parimo, Studies in Modern Indian Art, Kanak Publications, New Delhi. p.17

220 Neville Tuli, The Flamed Mosaic-Indian Contemporary painting, First pub in 1997 by Tuli foundation

for holistic education and art in association with Mapin publication pvt. Ltd.1997.

221 Neville Tuli, op cit

106

The academic perspective was not the manner with which the

Indian vision had been fashioned. In India though, the perspective of the

mind‘s eye was for more relevant than representation.222

During 19th century the art as a whole was obviously of a very

inferior character made in the ―Bazaars‖ as at the trading stations and

showing little or elegance of its origin which were in ancient miniature

paintings. Thus India in the late 19th

Century presented a spectacle of

―art-barrenness‖, hard to imagine. It was in order to revive the lost glory

of traditional crafts that these art schools were started during 19th

century.

But these colleges were ineffective in salvaging the lost spirit, because

academic art was taught in these institutions. Less attention was paid to

Indian form and techniques. As a result traditional Indian paintings began

to decline.

2:2:2 Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906): Towards the end of the 19th

century, one notable Indian artist, Ravi Verma, tried to reestablish Indian

art through western methods, techniques, principles and traits. He was

successful in his venture because he took Indian art back to feudal themes.

(With the coming of European painters the myth and religion was no more

important subject matter of paintings. Nature, festivals, common man‘s

222

Neville Tuli, op cit

107

life was introduced as a subject of Indian painting with Western

technique).

Raja Ravi Verma was among the first artists in the 19th Century to

introduce a radical change by focusing on themes of Indian mythology and

literature. He did this by resurrecting classical Indian sources from the

Mahabharat and from Kalidasa‘s Play, and by combining this with

European techniques of realism in colour, composition & perspective.223

Tapati Guha is of the opinion that, Ravi Varma appeared to fit ideally the

colonial prescriptions for a new improved Indian art. His mythological

paintings provided the answer to Lord Northbrook‘s address to students on

the opening of the Government Art Gallery in Calcutta in 1876.224

Tapati

Guha further mentioned that, the Calcutta school of Art was different from

the J.J.School of art, Bombay. Its strongest qualifications to be considered

a ‗school of Art‘could be traced to the existence of an adjoining Art

Gallery that had been founded by Viceroy Lord Northbrook in 1876, filled

with specimens of ‗fine arts‘from a range that was strictly European.

Through originals and copies, a representative selection of work of ‗the

good painters of Europe‘was to be introduced to the totally uninitiated

students, to inculcate in them ‗the right way of seeing‘; ‗so that the eyes of

223

Raja Ravi Varma, The painter Prince 1848- 1906, Parasram Mangharam, 2002

224 Thakurta Tapati Guha,The Making of New Indian Art, Cambridge University, 1992, p. 108.

108

the young might become accustomed to the observation of what is

beautiful in the form and colour of all objects.‘225

An artist who is credited with bringing about a momentous turn in

Indian art, Raja Ravi Varma, influenced future generations of artists. He

was the first Indian artist to master perspective and the use of the oil

medium. He was the first artist to cast the Indian gods and mythological

characters in natural, earthy surroundings using a European realism; the

first Indian artist to become famous. Before him, painters and craftsmen

were largely unidentified and he was the first to make his work available

not just to the rich elite but also to common people by way of his

oleographs. His paintings also provided answer to the famous speech of

Lord Napier, Governor of Madras, of 1871 ‗The Fine Arts of India‘, where

he called on the new Indian artists, trained in the European style of

painting, to enrich their ‗superior‘ skills with a true stuffing of India:

Indian people and costumes, Indian land-scape, and age old epic stories of

the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.226

Even Rabindranath Tagore expressed his admiration. Tagore noted:

―I spent the entire morning looking at Ravi Verma pictures. I must confess

I find them really attractive. After all, these pictures prove to us how dear

our own stories, our own image and expressions are to us. In some

225

Minute by the Lt. Governor of Bengal, Quoted in Tapati Guha, op cit. p. 64.

226 Thakurta Tapati Guha, op. cit. pp. 108-110.

109

paintings, the figures are not quite in proportion. Never mind! The total

effect is compelling.‖227

Tagore further said:

―The secret of their appeal is in reminding us how precious our own

culture is to us, in restoring to us our inheritance. Our mind here acts as an

ally of the artist. We can almost anticipate what he is about to

say........................ It is all too easy to find fault with him. But we must

remember that it is a lot easier to imagine a subject than to paint it. A

mental image, after all, has the freedom to be imprecise. But if that

mental image has to be turned into something as concrete as a picture,

with concern for even the minute aspects of representation, then that task

ceases to be facile.‖228

Raja Ravi Varma, ‗the artistic genius,‘ embodies the virtues

expected of an academic artist. The Modern Review described him as the

greatest artist of modern Indian, a nation builder, who showed the moral

courage of a gifted ‗high – born‘ in taking up the‘ degrading profession of

painting.229

Even Lord Curzon was impressed by the paintings of Ravi Varma.

He considered Ravi Varma‘s work as a ‗happy blend of Western technique

and Indian subject and free from oriental stiffness.‘ He recognized Varma

as ―One who for the first time in the history of Indian art, commenced a

new style of painting.‖230

227

Rabindranath Tagore, Chitravali Patrabali 1893, Quoted in Partha Mitter Art and Nationalism in Colonial India 1850-1922, Cambridge University Press, p-179

228 Rabindranath Tagore, Chitravali Patrabali 1893, Quoted in Partha Mitter Art and Nationalism in

Colonial India 1850-1922, Cambridge University Press, p-218.

229 Modern Review, 1, 1-6, Jan-Jun 1907, p-84.

230 Curzon quoted in Anonymous, Ravi Varma and the Indian Artist, Allhabad 1902, p-10.

110

Even the Prince of Wales on his Visit to India in 1875-76 expressed

‗great pleasure in (Varma‘s) works, (and) was presented with two of them

by the Maharaja of Travancore.231

Raja Ravi Varma was considered as a legend in his own time. He is

considered one of the world‘s most romantic and revolutionary painters of

the 19th Century. He was responsible in giving a new dimension to Indian

painting, and he carved a niche for himself in, thus bringing laurels to his

work not only in India but also worldwide.

Born on April 29, 1848, in Kilimanoor, a small village in the

southern state of Kerala, Ravi Verma belonged to a family of scholars.

From his early childhood he was interested in drawing. As a small boy, he

filled the walls of his home with pictures of animals, acts and scenes from

his daily life, which was noted by his uncle Raja Raja Varma who himself

was a painter of Tanjore style. ―He drew on walls and sketched incessantly

when he should have been memorizing his Sanskrit conjugations. The

prodigy was then duly ‗discovered‘ by his uncle Raja Raja Varma. The

child often watched him at work. Once in his uncle‘s absence, he even

dared to complete the figure of a bird in his uncle‘s painting. The older

231

Victoria Memorial Correspondence, I, Calcutta 1901-4

111

man was so impressed with the work that he predicted his future

greatness.‖232

His uncle Raja Raja Varma was instrumental in bringing him to

Thiruvananthapuram where Ayilyam Thriunal accorded him Royal

patronage. At the age of fourteen, Ravi Varma started living in

Thiruvananthpuram as the protege of the Ruler.233

Under the generous

patronage of Ayilyam Thirunal, Ravi Verma was exposed to a whole lot of

new influences, Western and Indian.

Incidently Ravi Varma used indigenous paints made from leaves,

flowers, tree bark and soil which his uncle Raja Raja Varma prepared for

him. But the technique of oil on canvas drew his attention, (the medium

was very new and the technique equally elusive in those days.) Only one

person in Travancore knew the technique of oil painting and he was

Ramaswamy Naickar a palace artist. He refused to teach him because he

recognized a ―potential rival‖ in Ravi Varma. 234

Even Theodore Jensen, a portrait painter of Dutch origin who came

to the capital with a letter of recommendation from the Viceroy and was

232

The Times 25-12-1906

233 Partha Mitter, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India 1850-1922, Cambridge University Press, p-181

234 Chaitanya Krishna, The History of Indian Painting, The Modern Period, Abhinav Publications, 1994, p.

128.

112

given commission by the ruler for his portraits, refused to teach Ravi

Varma and merely allowed him to see him at work. 235

Both the painters considered Ravi Varma as a threat. Perhaps one

can easily detect a clear trace of jealousy. Nevertheless, One of Naidu‘s

pupils helped Varma secretly. Ravi Varma was quick to learn on his own

and adopt any new technique.

Whatever may be one‘s appraisal of Ravi Varma‘s aesthetic

contribution, one cannot, deny him the credit for the first substantial

achievement in the modern context in India, in the new medium of oil

painting, and that too without the benefit of systematic training in an

academic institution or under a competent instructor.236

Ravi Varma was a ‗Self-taught‘ artist. He had none to guide and

instruct him in the technique and mysteries of oil painting ............. yet

nothing daunted (him)..............he worked till he overcame all

difficulties.237

B. Havell says, ―Though not trained in a school of art, all his (Ravi

Varma's) methods have been based on the academic rostrums of Anglo-

Indian schools, fine Arts societies and art critics‖ and G. Venkatachalam,

discussing the state of Art during the latter half of 19th century, says,

235

Ibid. p. 128.

236 Chaitanya Krishna, op. cit. p. 128.

237 Partha Mitter, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India 1850-1922, Cambridge University Press, p-181

113

―Painting, as such, there was none worth the name except the mongrelised

type imposed by the Government Schools of Art, of which Raja Ravi

Varma was the best example.‖ Ravi Varma had nothing to do with art

schools at any point of time. The Madras Art School was founded in 1853

and the Calcutta School in 1854 and for many years both of them had

taught only industrial crafts. When painting, was introduced as an

additional discipline, during the late 1870's, Raja Ravi Varma was already

an accomplished painter. And his paintings emerged as the first important

signifiers of 'modernity' and 'nationalism'. The notion of modernity, by

then, was fully appropriated with the agenda of Indian nationalism. Dr.

Anand Kentish Coomaraswamy's criticism was not based on his originals

but on his oleographs. He had not seen the originals ―I have not even seen

the painter's work, and known it only from coarse prints.‖ According to

Nanak Ganguly, the clue to the interpretive process in his work starts from

the fact that the portrait, a privileged form of European and therefore

colonial Indian art, is mapped over an indigenous albeit popular identity.

Ravi Varma's references for this came from Tanjore paintings with their

more elaborate Mysore antecedents, but these are superseded by what he

learnt of Western manner in the easel format in Trivandrum.238

238

Ganguly Nanak, Raja Ravi Varma: The painter who made the gods human, Essay published in Art news and views, July 2011,vol. 18.

114

A small Pamphlet, ―Ravi Varma, The Hindu artist of India‖, issued

in connection with the Chicago exhibition of 1893, stated ―Ravi Varma

started painting for amusement, not expecting this to be his life‘s work.

He had no one to instruct him or draw inspiration from when he

started‖.239

Raja Ravi Varma had the ability to produce a deceptive invitation

of real objects. As Ravi Varma‘s descendant Indira Verma writes, ―when a

European woman painter tried to deceive him with a trompe – L‘ oeil

umbrella, the artist invited the lady ......... to dinner, when she arrived, he

led her inside. She found many other guests seated on either side of a long

table in a large hall. The artist asked her to take her place, but when she

tried to do so, she found that the door, the large room, the table and the

guests, all formed part of one large canvas.‖240

Raja Ravi Verma‘s paintings drew inspiration from his uncle Raja

Raja and Tanjor painters at the court. Secondly, even though Ramaswami

Naidu refused to train Ravi Varma, he used to watch him working. The

court painter‘s canvases were on view in the palace. He was a well-

respected traditional oil painter. Naturalism had crept into other parts of

traditional Kerala, as, for instance, in the murals of the Padmanabhaswami

239

Mitter Parth, opcit p 181

240 Mitter Parth, op cit p 182.

115

temple in Trivandrum. This mixed world of Varma‘s youth provided the

ground work of his art.241

Another source of Ravi Varma‘s inspiration was a member of that

band of adventuring brush wielders who descended upon India carrying

letters of recommendation from eminent Englishmen, such as Theodore

Jenson who was working for the Travancore Maharaja in 1868 Raja Raja

Varma probably picked up the technique of academic oil from him.242

The next source of borrowing for Ravi Varma was Sanskrit poetry,

particularly dramatic poetry, and Kathakali literature of kerala. Ravi

Varma‘s mother, Uma Amba Bai, was a poetess of sorts in Manipravalam

and trained her daughter Mangala Bai as a musician. Mangala Bai, Ravi

Varma and C. Raja Varma, all three brothers and sister, illustrated many

a well- known Sanskrit text particularly Kalidas. These paintings grew to

be the items of national pride, drawing the attention of Bengal‘s leading

writers and critcs, and finding their way into exclusive journals like

Sadhana, Prabasi, Bharati and the Modern Review.243

Ravi Varma‘s Paintings won virtually all the accolades that were

possible for an Indian painter of his times. Starting out with portraiture

and genre painting, he achieved national fame through his explicit

241

Ibid. p 184.

242 Ibid. p 184.

243 Thakurta Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 110.

116

project of figuring ‗Indianess‘ through reinterpretations of the epic

narratives of the Ramayana and Mahabharat, and the mythological stories

of the Purans.

According to Guha, Ravi Varma‘s project bolstered the central

premises of both European Orientalism and Indian nationalism. In its

selection of specific canon, from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and

Kalidas‘s epics, it invoked and reinforced a well-certified notion of India‘s

‗classical‘ past. Within this ‗classical‘ canon, the choice of themes-

particularly, the romantic themes of love, longing and bereavement-was

seen to uphold the loftiest and lyrical values embedded in Indian literature

and mythology. His mythic personages, especially his heroines like

Shakuntala or Damayanti, came consciously to represent a Pan- Indian

type- individualized, often regionally placeable, yet standing forth as

certain ideal national prototypes.244

Ravi Varma‘s mythological paintings provided the Indian cultural

elite with their independent variety of ‗high art‘and a new ‗national‘

iconography. To a growing middle- class public for ‗art‘ in Bengal, these

paintings were projected as the epitome of a new ‗artistic‘ and ‗Indian‘

sensibility‘.245

Ravi Varma‘s paintings were said to embody the right

244

Ibid. p. 110

245 Balendranath Tagore, ‘ Ravi Varma’ and Hindu Debdebir Chitra’ Quoted in Thakurta Tapita Guha, op.

cit. p. 110

117

blend of lyrical emotions and ideals with a sense of beauty of form and

colour.246

Raja Ravi Varma was also inspired by Marathi theatre to infuse a

dramatic quality into his paintings. The female figure was much favored

by him and heroines of Puranic and classical Indian themes and neo -

classical Manipravala Malayalam Literatures, High class ladies, including

from his own community, women from other strata of society, all come to

life with the absolute sureness of touch of his strokes and sweeps. They

arrived in a vast variety of moods and costumes like women engrossed in

beautification, playing musical instruments and at temples and trysts or in

light banter.247

Raja Ravi Varma was one of the greatest portrait painters of his

time. He painted the portraits of many British governors and was invited

by the rulers of Mysore, Baroda and Udaipur to paint – portraits and

mythological scenes. In the course of their career they received

commission from the leading princely states, and English and Indian

dignitaries. The Duke of Buckingham is said to have remarked that he had

246

Balendranath Tagore,‘ Ravi Varma’ and Hindu Debdebir Chitra’ Quoted in Thakurta Tapita Guha, op.

cit. p. 110.

247 See Plates No.39.

118

once given eighteen sittings to a European painter, who was unable to do

half as well as Ravi Varma with so few sittings.248

Ravi Varma‘s talent never went unrecognized. In 1873 he won the

first prize at the Madras Painting Exhibition, Patronized by the then

‗Governor Lord Hobart.‘ His Painting ‗Nair Lady at the Toilet‘,249

Won

the first prize, the Governor‘s Gold Medal and later in 1873, for the

same work he secured the most distinguished award at the International

exhibition in Vienna. In 1876, his large figurative composition

‗Shakuntala‘s Love Letter,‘250

was exhibited in Madras and was purchased

by Lord Buckingham. His painting ‗A Tamil Lady Playing the Sarabat,‘251

also won the Governor‘s Gold Medal in 1894 in Madras Exhibition.

The Maharaja of Travancore, who was so generous in honoring him

for the State, gifted this painting (The Nair Lady at the Toilet), along with

two other– one of a Malayalee lady on a couch under a transparent curtain

and another of a fine tusker and its mate in water, to the Prince of Wales

(Later King Edward-VII), during his royal visit to Madras in 1875. The

Prince had all admiration for this display of talent. The year 1876 saw the

now-world famous ‗Shakuntala‘s Love Letter to Dushyantha ‗as Ravi

248

Mitter Parth, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India 1850-1922, Cambridge University Press, p-190.

249 See Plate No.40.

250 See Plate No.41.

251 See Plate No.42.

119

Varma‘s entry. It was a well- known episode from Kalidasa‘s immortal

Sanskrit play and set in motion a new vision to Indian art itself, as for the

first time ever, the theme came from a totally literary source. This portrait

was a masterpiece in every sense of the term, its treatment of the face,

figure expression and posture was brilliant, and it was possible, that many

would have fallen in love with her, like her royal sire of yore. Lord

Buckingham the them governor, announced his desire to purchase the

painting, and Sir Moniar Williams who translated ―Shankuntalam‖

requested Ravi Varma‘s permission to use it as the frontispiece in the

subsequent edition of the book.252

In 1893 at World‘s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, Ravi Varma

represented India. He sent his series of painting of Indian women, and for

which he received two awards.

In the year 1894, Ravi Varma started his Lithographic press in

Bombay. He was the first artist to make his work available not just to the

rich elite but also to common people by way of his oleographs.

Even while catering to a specific class of patrons with his oil

paintings, Ravi Varma wanted to make his works accessible to the

common man. The artist‘s Biography in Malayalam by Balakrishnan Nair

elaborates this point. It records an exchange between Ravi Varma and a

252

Raja Ravi Varma, The Painter Prince, 1848- 1906, published by, Parasram Mangharam, Bangalor, India.2002.

120

Brahmin Scholar at his studio in Kilimanoor, Kerala. The artist had asked

a bystander for his opinion of a certain painting and the scholar argued on

the pretext of how could the artist expect a commoner to express an

opinion on a work of art? ―True‖ said Ravi Varma, ―these people do not

have the means to get the pictures painted, but who know if in the time of

their children, these very pictures now painted for Maharajas and nobles

will find their way into museums. I have heard that there are public

galleries in Western countries‖253

The idea of printing and distribution oleographs was given to Ravi

Varma by T. Madhava Rao, Former Dewan of Travancore and later

Baroda wrote to him in 1884, ―There are many friends who are desirous of

possessing your works. It would be hardly possible for you, with only a

pair of hands, to meet such a large demand. Send, therefore, a few of your

select works to Europe and have them oleographed. You will thereby not

only extend your reputation, but will be doing a real service to the

country.254

According to Krisha Chaitanya ―The artist started his own

venture, The Ravi Varma Lithographic Press, in Bombay in 1894, with a

small staff of German technicians.‖ 255

253

Sihare Manjari, Raja Ravi Varma Oleographs: The Making Of National Identity, 2013,

254 Quoted in Parth Mitter,op. cit. p. 208.

255 Chaitanya Krishna, The History of Indian Painting the Modern Period, Abhinav Publicatins, 1994,

p.127.

121

In order to influence vast majority Raja Ravi Varma‘s choice for

representation was religious themes, God picturised in various situations,

female figures, puranic heroines. Straying from his usual choices are the

three paintings of great patriotic characters, Rana Pratap, Shivaji Maharaj

and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The Last was done at time when political

upheavals were boiling and spilling all over nation. According to E.M.J.

Venniyoor ―Thus ...... Ravi Varma Achieved such fame as was never

achieved by any artist in the annals of Indian Art- to this day. In world art

too, except for a Picasso of a later date, no artist seems to have

commanded such reputation among his people during his lifetime.256

By the end of 19th Century, Raja Ravi Varma had attained his goal

as a national hero. In 1904 The Imperial Government announced the

Kaiser-i-Hind medal to be awarded to Ravi Varma. According to Raja

Raja Varma, Raja Ravi Varma brother:

―The Honour bestowed on my brother comes without our seeking. We

never spoke to anyone about it, nor have we worked for it........ This is the

first time an artist is honoured in Indian history. The honours so far were

given to officials and rich men who donated liberally to charitable causes.

This honor will never fail to progress of art in India......... When I consider

that, as the first Indian artist of worldwide reputation, the Government has

recognized his love and devotion for art, I have reason for great happiness

being his inseparable companion,colleague and helper ............... ―257

256

Raja Ravi Varma, The Painter Prince, 1848-1906, pub by, Parasram Mangharam, Banglalore, India, 2002.

257 Raja Ravi Varma, The Painter Prince, 1848-1906, pub by, Parasram Mangharam, Banglalore, India,

2002.

122

Varma‘s reputation was well established by the late 19th century. By 1903,

Varma had become something of a national hero258

.That Varma was not a

product of the colonial art school system, yet was proficient in European

techniques of trompe-l‘oeil added to the artist‘s charisma.259

Befriended

by Congress leaders including Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Dadabhai

Naoroji, and felicitated in 1904 by the Congress for his contributions to

the nationalist movement, Varma‘s early biographers described him as a

key protagonist in the task of nation-building.260

At the 1903 Congress exhibition in Madras, Varma displayed his oil

on canvas ―Lady in Moonlight‖261

. While sartorial markings such as the

use of regional attire and jewelry ensured easy identification with the

figure for its local audiences, the image simultaneously located the figure

of the waiting woman within romantic tropes already well established in

pre-colonial Sanskrit poetry. Paintings such as these acquired multilayered

meanings, especially in the context of contemporaneous nationalist

impetus for reviving Sanskrit literary traditions.

Simultaneously, the Ravi Varma Press, established by the artist at

Lonavala in the 1890s, disseminated Varma‘s portraits of nationalist

258

Author Unknown, Ravi Varma: The Indian Artist, Allahabad, 1903.

259 Padmanabhan Tampy K. P., Ravi Varma: A Monograph, Trivandrum, 1934, p. 7

260 Chatterjee Ramananda, “Ravi Varma”, Modern Review vol.1, No. 1-6, 1907, pp. 88-89.

261 See Plate No. 43

123

leaders to a wider audience. For Varma‘s early 20th-century biographers,

it is the establishment of this press that bore testimony to the artist‘s

patriotism. Varma‘s mass-disseminated oleographs functioned just like

nationalist speeches, the Congress leader Surendranath Banerjee is

reported to have remarked.262

Varma‘s status as the foremost Indian artist was soon eclipsed by

Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951), whose works were also displayed at

the 1903 Congress exhibition.

Ravi Varma died on 2nd

October, 1906. The news of his death was

in the evening edition of the Times of India which wrote ―with Ravi

Varma ended the optimistic phase of Colonial art in India‖263

Ravi Varma‘s Contribution has been far – reaching. He awakened a

national feeling or consciousness through his chosen medium, projected

India into rarified realms of high class art, and for the first time elevated

the Indian artist to a position of dignity. He made the outside world more

acutely aware of the infinite variety and incredible charm that this ancient

land has to offer, an Indianism which survived extended alien influences.

The most profound service he rendered was to invest the Hindu pantheon

262

Nair Balakrishnan N, Raja Ravi Varma, Trivandrum, 1953, p. 141.

263 Quoted in Parth Mitter, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850- 1922, Cambridge University

Press, p. 217.

124

of gods and goddesses with face, figure and forms and to enable them to

find places in the hearts and homes of the poor and rich.

The picture–prints of Saraswati, Lakshmi, Krishna, coronation of

Shree Ram, which adorn the prayer rooms, shops and commercial

establishments all over India, owe their origion to Ravi Varma and mass

produced colour prints to his press, with the specific aim to making them

affordable for the commoner‘s purse.

Chapter-III

Colonial Painting-II

125

Colonial Painting-II

3:1 E.B. Havell and Changing Art Tradition in India: Beginning with

the arrival of European artists to India in the late 18th Century, before

India was officially ruled by the British crown, the popular perceptions

and idea of art and artist on the ground began to change. In 1854,

Industrial Art School was founded in Calcutta.264

(In 1864, this was

converted into the Calcutta Government College of Art). With the British

crown taking over the East India territories in 1858 and Queen Victoria

becoming Empress of India, the Bombay Government Art College (later

renamed J. J. School of Art) and the Madras Government Collage of art

were also established.

When the British consolidated their power in India they introduced

English education to produce English educated native citizens for the

purpose of colonial governance. These art schools were established, where

western methods were given greater attention; therefore the traditional

Indian painting began to decline. According to Tapati Guha- Thakurta the

popular enrollment of the Indian student into this school, as well as its

264

This school was started as a private enterprise by number of Indian and European gentlemen who formed themselves into a society under the name of the Industrial Art Society. Their institution was known as the school of Industrial Art during the time of Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitter. This was afterwards turned into Government School of Art Calcutta, when Lord Northbrook was the Governor General.

126

sister school, throughout the country, may be read as the

institutionalization and public acceptance of a new definition of "artist" in

India, which had been fermenting since the late 18th century. The students

that matriculated into this new type of state-operated art schools did so "to

master the art of realistic and illusionist oil painting to secure commissions

for portraits and to gain entry to the prestigious chain of ' Fine art

exhibitions,265

which were all distinctly European traditions. In the early

years of the 20th Century, it was soon realized that the new trend started

by Europeans in the art of painting and adopted by some Indian painters

like Ravi Verma was bound to distract Indian painters from its past which

has a glorious history of many years.

It is against this general backdrop of westernization of perception of

the artist that the effort to create a new, distinctly Indian art emerged. In

July 1896, the English art historian and teacher Earnest Benfield Havell,

popularly known as E.B. Havell became the superintendent of the

Government school of Art in Calcutta, after holding the same position at

the Madras School of Art for about decade.266

265 Tapati Guha-Thakurta. The Making of a New ‘Indian’ Art: Artists Aesthetics and Nationalism in

Bengal, c. 1850 – 1920, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p-11.

266 Kar Sri Chintamoni and Dey Mukul, History of Government College of Art and Craft, Centenary

publication, Calcutta, 1966, p 21

127

A European himself, Havell was a firm believer that the practice of

art education in India unquestionably had to be based on the Indian arts

tradition.267

In a statement expressing his grievances with the arts

education system in Calcutta before his arrival, Havell complains:

"The study of design, the foundation of all art, was entirely ignored

and throughout, the general drawing and painting classes, the worst

traditions of the English provincial art school forty years ago, where

followed ......................... Oriental art was more or less ignored, thereby

taking the Indian art students in a wrong direction."268

According to Havell:

―Twenty four years ago I was sent out to India to instruct Indians in

Art, and having instructed them and myself to the best of my ability, I

returned amazed at the insularity of Anglo- Saxon mentality which has

taken a century to discover that we have more to learn from India than

India has to learn from Europe............... There will never be a true

renaissance of art in India until the fine arts are restored to their proper

place in National life"269

Havell's efforts at reorganizing the educational policy at the

Government School of Art were driven by the desire to change the school

"from a fine art academy into a school of design and applied arts, with a

special focus on the traditions of decorative arts."270

He introduced the

curriculum which could recognize Indian traditional arts. Throughout the

1890s, Havell spilled all his energy into his role as an education reformer

267

Hoskote, Ranjit.“E.B.Havell and A.K.Coomaraswamy” Art India, 2001.

268 Sri Chintamoni Kar, opcit p-22

269 E.B.Havell,The studio 44. 184 (15 July 1908), Rpt. in ,The basis for Artistic and Industrial Revival in

India, Madras. Thesophist Office, 1912.

270 Tapati Guha-Thakurta.Op cit. p-151.

128

creating crafts programs at the school that taught "decorative design",

classes such as stenciling, fresco painting lacquer-work on wood, and the

preparation for stained-glass windows.271

His efforts to promote Indian

traditions of design and craft work within the Calcutta School of Art were

of limited success. His efforts at "Indianising" the school's curriculum at

this stage in his career however was focused solely on revitalizing the

"decorated" art portions; He left the "fine" art areas almost totally

untouched, therefore creating an implied dichotomy that assigned the "fine

arts" as a purely European area of study, and the "decorative arts" its

Indian counterpart and only area of concern for reforms.272

Towards the late 1890s, Havell's focus began to shift from

education reform to the engagement of a new emerging Indian fine arts

scene and his role within that scene was not only as an educator, but now

as an ideologue as well.273

His efforts at revamping the collection at the

Government Art Gallery adjacent to the Government School of Art,

specifically with example of Mughal Miniature Painting and samples of

the Ajanta murals as well as reproduction of Byzantine and early pre-

Renaissance Italian art was the initial precursu to this shift.274

271

Thakurta Tapita Guha, op cit, p 151.

272 Thakurta Tapita Guha, op cit, p 151-152

273 Ibid p 153

274 Ibid p 154

129

Nanak Gangly in one of his article has written that when E.B.

Havell took charge of the Art School in Calcutta in 1896, he felt it was

injurious to teach an Indian to paint cheap pastiche of Royal Academy. He

realized Oriental art was more or less ignored, thereby taking the Indian

students in a wrong direction. Nanak Ganguly further states that by 1904

he sold out almost all the Western Painting and plaster casts of the

antiques from the School's Art gallery, and had them replaced by Indian

paintings.275

Havell's acknowledgement of an Indian "fine arts" tradition and his

presentation of it in tandem with pre-Renaissance European art, may

signal a dissolving of his conceived dichotomy between the purely "fine"

and purely "decorative" arts, which itself allowed him later to promote, in

a highly paternalistic manner,276

the new painting, of the artist,

Abanindranath Tagore, as distinctly ‗original and Indian‘. Havell even

went so far to say, as Tapati Guha – Thakurta reveals, that

Abanindranath's evolution as an ' Indian' artist was owed 'entirely to the

new collections of the Art Gallery.' despite the fact that Abanindranath

had independently experimented with his own Indian - style of painting

since 1895.277

275

Nanak Ganguly, Major Trends in Indian Art, lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi

276 Thakurta,Tapati Guha, p-155.

277 Ibid p 155.

130

Even Parth Mitter in his article ―Art and Nationalism in India‖ has

mentioned that during the initial era of Westernization under the Raj, the

Indian elite had suffered a severe crisis of intellectual confidence, bruised

buy Macaulay's famous Minute on Education278

who wanted to create a

class " Indian in blood and color but English in tastes, in opinions, in

morals and in intellect." He further states two developments helped their

recovery. First, modern Bengali language and literature serving as a

vehicle of nationalist aspirations, initial Bengali aspirations flowing into

larger Indian ones; second, Hinduism receiving a boost with Theosophists

presents it as a spiritual alternative to the materialist west. Earnest

Benfield Havell‘s disillusions with Renaissance Art, as a symbol of the

materialist west were almost as intense as Annie Besant's disenchantment

with European society. As the principal of Calcutta Art School in 1896,

Havell engaged in wresting 'just' recognition for Indian art in the West on

the one hand, and in encouraging a 'genuine' contemporary Indian art

among students on the other, for he believed that the two went together.

Paradoxically, his two measures, the removal of classical antiques from

classrooms and replacing European painting in the Gallery with fine

Mughal art met with hostility from the students within the school, and by

the national press. This shows how deep Western taste had penetrated

278

Mitter Parth, Art and Nationalism in India, History Today, July, 1982, vol. 32, issue, 7.

131

Bengal. The surprising fact is that the British Viceroy Lord Curzon,

otherwise known for his pronounced antipathy to Bengal nationalism,

wholly supported Havell in his measures.279

Thus E.B. Havell, through his experience, draws the conclusion that

the Western art could never prosper in India. He believed that painting in

India must remain Indian in spirit even when it adopted western

techniques of execution, It was due to his sincere efforts that the new art

movement started in India for the revival of the lost values. Through his

efforts there emerged a distinct-school of Indian painting that came to be

known as the Modern School of artists. The pioneer of the new school was

Abanindranath Tagore. His work was twofold, to rediscover the best in the

Indian art of the ancient and medieval eras, and to regenerate art in its

modern setting. Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of the Bengal school,

was the first to evolve a typical Indian Style, characterized by a delicacy

of line and color and lyrical romanticism. The "Indian style" that emerged

soon spread throughout the country and the Bengal school assumed a

national character.

279 Mitter Parth, Art and Nationalism in India, op.cit.

132

3:2 Abanindra Nath Tagore, Nationalism and painting in colonial

Bengal

3:2:1 Personal life and background of Abanindra Nath Tagore:

Abanindranath Tagore was an artist who lived in the cononial urban

center of Calcutta, at a time when India was under British rule. As part of

a widespread manifestation of Indian cultural politics around the turn of

the 19th century, Abanindranath Tagore is well known as founder of an art

movement, later to be called the Bengal school.

Dr. Abanindranath Tagore, the famous artist of modern India, was

born in Calcutta on August 7, 1871, at the Jorasanko residence of the

Tagore family. He was the youngest son of the late Gunendranath Tagore

and grandson of late Girindra Nath, the second son of Prince Dwarkanth

Tagore.

According to Mukul Dey, when Abanindranath was about five years

old his father sent him to the normal school, then situated on the site of

Mr. Harran Sill's house in Chitpore Road, Jarasanko. He studied there for

about two or three years. One day English teacher pronounced "pudding"

as "padding" and when Abanindranath pointed out the mistake, as he had

pudding for dinner every night; his teacher flew into a face, flogged him

severely and tied him up with the punkha rope to the school bench.

133

He was left there confined till the school was over at 4 o'clock,

when he unfastened the rope and ran home. This kind of punishment

annoyed his father very much and Abanindranath's connection with the

normal school was there upon ended.280

After leaving the normal school,

Abanindranath made use of his father's paint box to paint rural scenes with

cottages and palm trees.

When Abanindranath was ten years of age his father passed away.

Abanindranath's mother desired once more to give him an ordinary school

education, so he was sent to Sanskrit College. While studying here he

composed a hymn on Saraswati. He also received many Sanskrit books as

prizes. There was no drawing class in the school but, with his classical,

studies Abanindranath began to write Bengali verses, illustrating them

with picture of dilapidated temples, moonlight scenes etc.

While still at Sanskrit College (1881-1890) Abanindranath took a

few lessons in Art from his class mate Anukul Chatterji of Bhawanipur. In

1889 he married Suhasini Devi. At this time he left the Sanskrit college.

In the year 1897 when Abanindranth was about twenty -five years

of age, he took private lesson from Signor Gilhardi, an Italian artist (then

vice principal of the Calcutta Government School of Art) on caste drawing

foliage drawing pastel and life study. Later Mr. Charles L. Palmer taught

280

Dey Mukul , Abindranath Tagore, A Survey of Master’s life and work, Vishwa Bharti Quarterly, May-Oct 1942

134

him for three years.281

Abanindranath attained such a proficiency in

portrait painting in oils that he could finish a picture within two hours.

In 1900, Abanindranath went to Monghyr where a complete change

took place in his artistic activities. He gave up painting in oil after

European style and took up painting in water color.

According to Mukul Dey, the turning point in his artistic career

came when one day; in his ancestral library at Jorasanko house he came

across an old illustrated Indo-Persian manuscript.282

The marvellous

drawings and Calligraphy in the book fired his imagination and inspired

him to reveal his own self in his art.

Abanindranath then began his famous Krishna Leela.283

This led

him to give up his once cherished hope of becoming the Titian of

Bengal.284

He found his own exertions for his art. Once for all he

abandoned the European style.285

In his article Art and Nationalism Parth Mitter write that with

'Krishna Leela' Series Abanindranath was already moving towards a more

281

Gangoly O.C., Abindranath Tagore, His early work edited by Ramendranath Chakravorty, Indian Museum Kolkata 2006, p-13

282 Dey Mukul , Abindranath Tagore, A Survey of Master’s life and work, Vishwa Bharti Quarterly, May-

Oct 1942

283 Dey Mukul , Abindranath Tagore, A Survey of Master’s life and work, Vishwa Bharti Quarterly,

May-Oct 1942.

284 Ibid

285Ibid

135

indigenous expression, because he considered his own Western training

unfulfilling.286

The course of art in India changed when Havell met Abanindranath.

Abanindranath's discovery of the delicacy of Mughal art was through

Havell. According to Mukul Dey:

―The orientation in the artistic outlook of Abanindranath created a new

awakening in India and brought about a revival of the Indian Art which for

centuries lay decadent and hidden from the public view. Just as in the

period of Renaissance the savants of Europe, after ages of gloom and

desolation, discovered the ancient culture, so it was Abanindranath who

found out India‘s lost art treasures. This awakening from darkness and the

new understanding which followed impressed its mark on almost all

branches of artistic activity, in painting, sculpture, architecture, book

illustration, design, commercial art, lithography, engraving etc.‖

Some of his famous paintings, which got admiration not only in

India, but in western countries also are ―Avisarika‖ (1892), ―Passing of

Shah Jahan‖ (1900), ―Buddha and Sujata‖ (1901), ―Krishna Leela‖ series

(1901 to 1903), ―Banished Yaksha‖ (1904), ―Summer‖ from Ritu Sanghar

of Kalidasa (1905), ―Moonlight Music Party‖ (1906), ―The Feast of

Lamps‖ (1907), ―Kacha and Devajani‖ (1908), ―Shah Jahan Dreaming of

Taj‖ (1909), illustrations of ―Omar Khayyam‖ (1909), ―The Call of the

Flute‖ (1910), ―Asoka‘s Queen‖ (1910: painted for her Majesty Queen

Mary), ―Veena Player‖ (1911), ―Aurangzeb examining the head of Dara‖

(1911), ―Temple Dancer‖ (1912), ―Pushpa-Radha‖ (1912), ―Sri Radha by

286

Mitter Parth, Art and Nationalism in India,op.cit

136

the River Jamuna‖ (1913), ―Radhika gazing at the portrait of Sri Krishna‖

(1913), ―Moonrise at Mussouri Hills‖ (1916), ―Poet‘s Baul-dance in

Falgurni‖ (1916), ―Chaitanya with his followers on the sea beach of Puri‖

(1915), ―Baba Ganesh‖ (1937), ―End of Dalliance‖ (1939).

The famous picture ―Alamgir‖ is a sublime masterpiece. The

Moghul Emperor is standing bent with age, his hands at the back clasping

a book inside which the blade of the sword is seen as a bookmark. The

fingers of the aged monarch are like the iron claws of an eagle which

catch its prey without mercy. There are many other pictures such as the

―Birds and Animals‖ series (1915), ―The Last Journey‖ 287

(1914), which

have also been very much admired. The ―Passing of Shah Jahan‖288

is an

oil painting in wood and looks like a superb Dutch miniature. One of the

latest works from his brush is a series of illustrations of the Tales of

Arabian Nights (1928) where the age-old desert tales spread themselves

before the eye with all their romance and mystery unimpaired.

Apart from paintings Abanindranath, contributed in the field of

literature also. Some of his valuable contributions are ―Raj-Kahani‖,

―Sakuntala‖, ―Kshirer-Putul‖, ―Bhutapatri‖, ―Nalaka‖, ―Nahush‖, ―Buro-

Angla‖ which please the old and the young alike.

287

See Plate No.44.

288See Plate No. 45.

137

The literature on art has been considerably enriched by his works

―Bharat Silpa‖, ―Six Limbs of Painting‖ and ‖ Artistic Anatomy‖, and his

various contributions to the Journal of Indian Society of Oriental Art.

Abanindranath was also interested in music and could play

beautifully instruments like sitar, veena, esraj and reed pipe. The drama

and stage decorations are also among the various subjects of

Abanindranath‘s interest. He was himself an actor of no mean merit. The

success of many of Rabindranath‘s famous plays was due in no small

measure to the artistic setting designed by Abanindranath‘s imaginative

mind.

According to Mukul Dey, ―Abanindranath use to make post-card

paintings and sketches which he was in the habit of sending to his pupils

as a sort of encouragement to them in their pursuit of art.‖ A small thing in

itself, this however reveals an important trait in his character. Of warm

and affectionate disposition, Abanindranath has always looked after the

welfare of his pupils, and besides ungrudgingly giving his help and

encouragement in their work he was always ready to help them out of their

difficulties with financial aid. Indeed his timely and secret financial

assistance has enabled many of his students, whose careers would

otherwise have come to an end, to attain success for themselves.

138

Abanindranath‘s work has been of great value in the regeneration of

national culture in India. It is not often in the history of a nation that a

genius like Abanindranath is born. It may sound strange to many, but it

is a fact nevertheless, that Abanindranath had a wide recognition in

Europe as an artist of great merit long before Rabindranath Tagore was

known there. It was the friends of Abanindranath and Gaganendranath,

like E. B. Havell, Thomas Sturge-Moore, Sir William Rothenstein, H.

Ponten-Moller, Norman Blunt, Sir John G. Woodroffe who encouraged

the Poet to publish his Gitanjali in English through the India Society,

London, which brought him international fame.

3:2:2 The paintings of Abanindranth Tagore: The beginning of

Abanindranath's effort at creating an "Indian-style" painting is often traced

to the year 1897, when he made two artists encounters that were to change

the course of the content and form of his painting towards the direction of

the style that characterized his early paintings. The first encounter was his

contact with the painter Frances Martindale, who gifted Abanindranath a

set of Irish Melodies illumined by her.289

At the same time, his brother in

law Sheshendrabhusan Chattopadhyay gave him a set of Indian

miniatures; it has been inferred by scholars that this album of miniatures

were likely examples of late Mughal painting, and possibly a product of

289

.Siva Kumar, The paintings of Abindranath Tagore, (Kolkata: Pratikshan, 2008,p-35

139

provincial Mughal school in Delhi from the nineteenth century.290

Both of

these samples introduced to Abanindranath a new kind of art in teams of

scale, format and medium,291

that agreed not only with his aversion to

European style naturalistic oil painting, but also with his sudden

inspiration to create art that was distinctly Indian. According to Tapati

Guha- Thakurta, "The artist himself fell that he had found the path of

Indian art" and in it the direction of his own true development. Memories

of previous dissatisfaction with the painting skill he had learnt from his

European tutors, added to this sent of elation at the new prospects before

him"292

The first painting made under the influence of 'distinctly Indian' was

Aviskar. This small painting made in watercolor is fully Indian in content,

it depicts Radha out on her tryst, a scene pulled from the Vaishnav verses

of Govindadas. As both, R.Siva Kumar and Tapati Guha Thakurta point

out, however, the format of the painting is modeled almost completely

after the illuminated manuscripts painted by Frances Martindale.293

Although the artist himself described the painting as his first

attempt at painting, "In the Indian manner," he was to later reflect on it

290

Ibid. p. 35.

291 Ibid. p. 36.

292 Thakurta, Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 235.

293 R.Shiv Kumar, op cit,p-26 and Tapti Guha ,op cit, p-235

140

with a suggestion that he was unsuccessful, saying that the subject of the

painting looked less like Radha and more like a "European woman clothed

in a Sari and set out in the open on a cold winter night.294

It was his

dissatisfaction with this painting that led Abanindranath to train directly

within indigenous painting techniques, and so he set out to learn from a

local artisan the methods of applying gold leaf to paintings.295

It was in his next series of paintings called the Krishna Leela series

that Abanindranath moved even closer towards the tradition of Mughal

painting, employing devices like intricate borders, calligraphic text, dense

application of colors,296

and an abundance of gold leaf.297

The composition of the painting was inspired by Rajput painting,

the Persian-like Calligraphy surrounded by cloud-borders was inspired by

Mughal painting, and most likely by those he received from his brother -

in-law.298

While Abanindranath was successful in combining Indian form and

subject matter in this series, it is interesting to observe the "aesthetic

secularization" involved in its presentation. while the theme of Krishna

294

R.Shiv Kumar, op cit,p-36.

295 Thakurta Tapti Guha, op cit, p-235.

296 R.Shiv Kumar, op cit, p-37.

297 Thakurta Tapati Guha, op cit p-235.

298 R.Shiv Kumar, opcit,p-38

141

leela came from medieval Vaishnava literature, the casting of this story

into a format that recalls Mughal miniatures is exemplary of the bricologe

effect delivered by the paintings,. In Krishna Leela, Abanindranath does

revive the indigenous, but does so within "the contours of a new

heterogeneity, a new cultural space, growing out of cultural cross

connection beginning to emerge from this eclectic conundrum.299

Soon After finishing the Krishna Leela series, Abanindranath met

E.B.Havell, who was the principal of Government Art School and was

making reforms at Government Art School. It was a meeting that changed

the course of Art in India Havell had learned the Indian art tradition, and

he was facing resistance from the students who were not convinced about

the necessity for his reforms. In 1897 the students of the Calcutta school

went on strike against the reorientation of teaching by Havell and

established the Jubilee Art Academy headed by Ranada Prasad Gupta.300

Havell had trouble with students throughout his term in Calcutta and in a

diplomatic move to win them over that in 1905 when Ghilardi the Vice-

principal died, he got Abanindranath Tagore appointed to the post.

Abanindranath on the other end, was already deeply committed to creating

a new Indian style of painting, and was at that point completely detached

299

R. Shiv Kumar, op cit, p 40.

300 Thakurta, Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 216.

142

from the art school, since he had never enrolled in one and in that point

has several ties with his private European tutors. It was under this

circumstance that "Havell found in him [Abaindranath] a 'Collaborator'

and Abanindranath ..................found in Havell his mentor and Guru.301

During the years following the formation of their friendship,

Abanindranath made an even more distinct effort to distance him from

Western art, and was drawn particularly to a winder range of Mughal and

Pahari miniatures that were made available by Havell.302

In Abhisarika, the image of which symbolized the sprit of the

monsoon night,303

the artist borrows both theme and compositional model

from indigenous sources,304

the subject matter is familiar to the Indian

viewer, and it is delivered within a decorative border that is also familiar

to those acquainted with Mughal art. This painting is an early example of

Abanindranath infusing into his work a distinclty individualized sense of

bhava or emotion.

Abanindranath was first fully successful in infusing Bhava into

style of Mughal painting in his famous, the passing of Shahjahan. The

artist succeeds here in capturing the details in the Mughal architecture of

301

R. Shiv Kumar, op. cit, p 67

302 Ibid, p 68

303Thakurta, Tapati Guha, op. cit, p241

304 R.Shiv Kumar, op. cit, p 68

143

the scene, doing true justice to the "delicate details and meticulous

workmanship of the miniature compositions.305

To him, ‗The Passing of

Shah Jahan was the painting which epitomized the infusion of bhava into

Mughal pictorial conventions.306

Abanindranath captures the 'Central

theme of death and eternal separation and the symbolism of the

transitoriness of life vis-a-vis the immortality of art.307

It is not the

rendering of architectural details here that speaks to the viewer, but

instead the simplistic forms of the dying emperor and his daughter at his

feet, as well as the tinty Taj Mahal in the distance that causes the space.

"Abanindranath according to his own account, powered into his image of

Shahjahan remembering his beloved in his dying moments his own grief at

the death of his daughter," who had just died in the year of 1902. This

poignant work stands as a perfect example of the truly personal nature of

Abanindranath‘s work.

All of these paintings are extremely important in understanding

Abanindranath as an artist above all the nationalist contextual history, but

all of them preclude his introduction to the ―wash‖ technique that he

developed after 1903. It was his interaction with two Japanese artists,

Taikan Yokoyama and Hishida Shunso, both students of the famous Pan-

305

Thakurta, Tapti Guha, opcit, p 243.

306 Ibid p 243.

307 Ibid p 243.

144

Asianist Okakura Kakuzo that allowed him to adapt this style. He noticed

that while painting, Taiwan Yokoyama would intermittently go over his

painting with a large brush dipped in water to softer its forms. This

inspired Abanindranath to adopt this technique by dipping his entire

paintings in water instead of merely using a brush. Early examples of this

teaching include Dewali, which in its elongation of the figure, naturalism,

and marked rendering of drapery is characteristic of Abanindranath's older

work,308

and serve as a perfect example of transition for the artist.

Abanindranath made his most famous painting, Bharat Mata,

around the climax of the Swadeshi movement in 1905. This work, which

was originally conceived as a representation of the regional linguistic

community of Bengal as Banga Mata (Mother Bengal)309

is considered

now as emblematic symbol of the Swadeshi movement as a symbolic

image of Mother India. While Bharat Mata still remains the most straight

forwardly Political painting in Abanindranath's oeuvre, and possibly the

only one used in political action (It was enlarged by one Japanese artists

and carried in fund raising Swadeshi processions much of its significance

comes once again from the rhetoric surrounding it.)

308

Thakurta, Tapati Guha, op. cit. pp. 250- 255.

309 Banerji, Debashish, The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore, SAGA publication, New

Delhi,2010, p xx.

145

Abanindranath Tagore was inspired by the Swadeshi Movement. In

one of her articles, Tapati Guha mentioned Abanindranath's personal

remembrance of the impact of the Swadeshi movement on his famous

Jorasanko household, "As I felt the tug of the wind, I tore out the ropes

and flung myself in; I let the boat float in the face of the current. Getting

rid of Western art, I now took up Indian art."310

When the Swadeshi spirit

began to pale in Jorasanko, Abanindranath wrote that "What remained of

it was a certain spirit and commitment" that he gave over fully to the

world of painting.311

In fact, Bharat Mata is considered the most

nationalist or political or Swadeshi painting of Abanindranath's period.

By the first decade of the 20th century, displacing Varma‘s Neo-

Classical academic realism, Tagore‘s ―Indian style‖ or ―Oriental style‖

painting emerged as the locus of a new ―national art.‖ Abanindranath

Tagore soon gathered around himself a group of dedicated pupils. With

Tagore as the progenitor, this new group of artists – known as the New

Calcutta School or the Bengal School – developed a style, which

privileged emotive qualities over correctness in form and proportions. The

Bengal School‘s rejection of oil painting and academic realism for

tempera and indigenous artistic traditions began as a localized, regional

310

Thakurta, Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 242.

311 Ibid. p. 259.

146

trend, which found a national support base in the swadeshi movement. Art

historians and critics such as E. B. Havell and Ananda Coomaraswamy, as

well as nationalist leaders including the Anglo-Irish social worker Sister

Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble) and the Irish Theosophist Annie

Besant, played an important role in framing discourses of art and swadeshi

around Tagore and his pupils. Varma now stood identified as derivative,

―vulgar‖ in his imitation of a foreign artistic repertoire.312

In contrast, Tagore‘s Japanese wash-style 1904-1905 painting Bharat-

mata313

or Mother India became an iconic image of anti-partition

Swadeshi in Bengal. The nation, here imagined as a young ascetic woman

dressed in saffron and wearing rudrakshya (the markers of renunciation),

holds in her four hands a rosary, a sheaf of grain, cloth, and a manuscript –

symbolizing the promise of food, clothing, spiritual salvation, and

education. The abstract ideal of nationalism was thus given a tangible

(Hindu) form in this iconic image. Bharat-mata was enlarged on a silk

banner and carried in swadeshi processions in Calcutta.

However, even as the Bengal School stood identified with

swadeshi, from the1920s onwards Abanindranath Tagore, the doyen of

this movement, increasingly distanced himself both from politics and from

312

Ibid. p. 187.

313 See Plate No.46

147

the gouaches that stood identified as the Bengal School style. The

watercolor ‗The Hunchback of Fishbone‘ from the artist‘s ‗Arabian Nights

series‘ is often read as symptomatic of the artist‘s disengagement from

politics.314

By placing the narrative within the artist‘s three-storied

residence, Tagore reproduced a hierarchical structure for the art world

where the creative artist occupied the uppermost level, disengaged both

from craftsmanly practices and nationalist politics. Craftsmen – the tailor,

the potter, and the metalworker – inhabit the first floor of the mansion.

Intellectuals, politicians, and bureaucrats occupy the second floor. The

individual artist genius places himself at the uppermost level of the

mansion.

In contrast to the nationalist public sphere marked by political

action, the true habitat of the artist genius was then the andarmahal, the

inner spheres of the home, and the antarmahal, the inner creative world, as

Tagore noted in his memoir. Over the subsequent years, Abanindranath

withdrew further into an idiosyncratic world of personal metaphors and

symbols, creating toy-like forms with driftwood. For scholars writing on

the Bengal School, Tagore‘s withdrawal into a self-referential and

autonomous domain of art becomes a parable of art‘s disengagement from

politics. As Tapati Guha-Thakurta writes, ―Clearly, Abanindranath‘s art

314

Thakurta Tapati Guha, op. cit. pp. 267- 268

148

movement represented a major break: it marked the coming of age of

‗Indian‘ art and ‗artists,‘ in the new modern sense of the terms.‖315

3:2:3 Abanidranath Tagore and "the Bengal School": Besides

producing art, Abanindranth also played a very important role as a teacher

of painting in the Government School of Art. In fact, it was through this

role that he gained his own students and the seeds of "the Bengal school"

were planted. Ironically, Abanindranath started to teach at the Government

School in 1905, the same year he produced "Bharat Mata" and the same

year the first Swadeshi boycott of all schools and colleges was called for.

Abanindranath accepted the job at Government College "on the

assurance that he would have the freedom to work independently in his

own studio in the school.316

Although Abanindranath was finally

convinced to teach at the Government School by Havell, their styles of

teaching were not exactly the same. While the Havell's mission was to

revive certain "Indigeneous" techniques and aesthetics in order to

reconnect the chord that had been torn from past tradition, Abanindranath

was focused almost completely on instilling a sense of cultural identity

within each individual artist that was ment to inspire the powers of

imagination. For example, in an often cited instance of Abanindranath

315

Thakurta Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 5.

316 Tapti Guha, 1992, p 270

149

telling his students to first read the poetry of Kalidas and then attempt to

paint nature.317

According to R.Shiv Kumar, Abanindranath was not

aiming for his students to practice either revivalism or illustration of

literature. Instead, he was seeking to encourage the use of imagination

within a clear, grounded cultural framework. This is supported in the

quote by the artist, translated by Tapati Guha-Thakurta: "Aesthetic

sensibility, intense thought and emotion, a discerning taste, a discerning

eye, enthusiasm, single-minded dedication, self control, a thirst for

knowledge, a deep attachment to one's country, and skills in drawing and

painting-only through such an aggregation of numerous qualities in an

artist made".318

The individualist nature Abanindranath sought to instill in his

students was evident in his idiosyncratic behaviour as a painting teacher.

Instead of teaching a specific way to paint "Indian art", he would instead

sit and work on his own paintings, surrounded by a group of his students

who would watch him paint.319

They would then work on their own

paintings, and bring him their work for his input.320

317

Thakurta, Tapati Guha, op. cit. p 204

318Ibid. p 262

319 Ibid, p 270

320 Ibid, p 270

150

Abanindranath's first two students were Nanadalal Bose and

Surendranath Ganguly and following these two students came another

wave of pupils that comprised the first wave of the new art movement,

soon to be called the Bangal School. This group included names like Asit

Kumar Haldar, Kshitindranath Majumdar, Sailendranath Dey,

Samarendranath Gupta, Surendranath Kar, Sarada Ukil and K.

Venkattapa.321

These students were taught by Abanindranath in his

eclectic pedagogic style, but not before they learned traditional techniques

of painting and colour preparation by the painter Ishwari Prasad.322

The Government College of Art began to pick up speed around

1906-7, with its new circle of Indian students producing an outpouring of

paintings that corresponded to "the master's" formula for an 'Indian –

style".323

During this time Abanindranath founded the Bichitra Club,

which served as an art class and studio during the day and hosted various

cultural events like concerts and art salons at night.324

Although he did not

resign until 1915, Abanindranath wrote to Havell as early as 1911 that he

was thinking about resigning from the Government College, and spoke of

321

Thakurta Tapati Guha, pp. 270- 274.

322 Ibid, pp 270- 274

323 Ibid. p 273

324 Ibid, p 275

151

a small studio at his own house where "Naandalal Bose and other boys

form the school would come and work every day."325

Bichitra Club was officially established in 1915 when

Abanindranath resigned from the Government College of Art. The

establishment of the Bichitra Club at Jorasanko corresponded with two

parallel developing paths that disseminated the paintings of the then-

dubbed "New Calcutta School." One of these paths was that of European

exhibition and patronage of painting, based on the institutional frame work

of the Society of Oriental Art, Which was established seven years earlier

in 1907, did not totally co-opt the art movement until 1915. The two main

functions of the Society of Oriental Art were to organize annual

exhibitions of Abanindranath and his students, paintings and to host

periodic talks on oriental art.326

These exhibitions and popular patronage

from rich Europeans is one half of the causes for solidifying the

movement as "India's most authentic new 'National Art"327

It was this dissemination and consolidation of the art movement that

created what we call "The Bengal School" today. The paradox at the heart

of the situation is that it was the very creation of a "school" of art which

325

Thakurta Tapati Guha, p 275

326 Ibid, p 278

327 Ibid, p 280

152

came from the solidification of the "movement" that drained it of its

revolutionary, nationalist, innovative zeal.

The main aesthetic trademark of "The Bengal School" was the wash

technique, which gave each painting the effect of either delicate, subtle

monotones or dank, murky layers of colour.328

These visual attributes

served to express moods and ideas more than representations of concrete

beings, and also obscured the physical setting of the story being told by

removing the specificity of the physical environments.329

It was this

expression of bhava or emotion that lent the paintings to interpretation by

the nationalist or Orientalist bystanders. For example, Nandalal Bose's

1907 painting of Sati330

was praised by Sister Nivedita as symbolizing "a

glorious Hindu ideal of womanhood in its attributes of tranquility, and

selflessness sacrifice."331

According to K.G. Subramanyan, ―to counter the Western

Academic style, the Bengal School offered their own formulae of an

‗Indian- Style.‘As formulae replaced formulae, what began as a

‗movement‘, a creative urge towards change and a new identity, folded

inwards into a ‗school‘, stagnating even as it reached its peak of

328

Tapti Guha, 1992, p 286

329 Ibid p 286

330 See Plate No.47

331 Ibid p 286

153

success.‖332

It was, therefore, inevitable that new innovative trends and

more self-conscious waves of modernism in Indian Painting emerged

outside the bounds of the school, defying classification under its set

categories of an ‗Indian-style‘333

.

According to Tapati Guha, ―At one level, the school threw up its

own avant-garde, opening up fresh potential and possibilities in the

experiments with Indian techniques and in the representations of Indian

mythology. The best evidence of this is to be found in the direction of

Nandalal Bose‘s work as he took charge of Santiniketan Kala Bhavan.

While, Nandalal had earlier contributed most effectively to the prototype

of ‗Indian-style‘ painting, in the twenties, it was he who pioneered a range

of bold experiments in form and composition. His forte lay in both the

ornamental and the linear, and in more vigorous and naturalistic work, as

he began to paint on an enlarged and open scale. Much of this new

creative energy found its outlet in the mural painting projects he undertook

in Santiniketan and elsewhere, culminating in his famous colourful murals

on Indian life for the Haripura Congress Session of 1937-38. In Nandalal,

and in the Santiniketan School that grew under him, ‗national art‘found a

332

Ibid. p. 314.

333 Thakurta Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 314.

154

new invigorated life-line, retaining through institutions and alliances a

spirit of continuity with its earlier phase.334

3:3 Nandlal Bose: With the disappearance of the families known for their

rich contribution to Indian miniature paintings, there was a vacuum for

almost a decade. Nature fills the vacuum, so the British artist took over

and began to introduce Western style and techniques as part of their

civilising mission.

Thus emerged a company painting which has no artistic merit and

significance. At Government Art School in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay

students were told to copy in western academic style in oil colour.

Naturally the Indian were bound to react sooner or later against such

practices and they reacted sooner. Thus was born ‗THE BENGAL

SCHOOL‘ under the leadership of E. B. Havell, the Principal of the

Government School of Art Calcutta.

He wanted to revive traditional Indian values, norms and technique.

In this he was assisted by Abanindranath Tagore and his student Nandalal

Bose. They rejected the academic style and went back to Ajanta, the

Mughal miniature and Rajput paintings for their inspiration. In wake of

this vigorous Renaissance, inspired and pioneered by E. B. Havell and

334

Ibid. p. 314.

155

Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal contribution was not only great but

diverse in subject matter.

Nandalal Bose was born on December 3rd

, 1882 in the village of

Kharaghpur, Monghyr, Bihar. His father Puranachandra Bose was a forest

officer in Darbanga. His mother Kehetramoni was adept in needle work

and various domestic crafts. Nandalal had his early education in

Kharagpur Monghur. From his early days Nandalal began to take interest

in modelling images. Images of Durga, Ganesh, elephant, bulls, were often

produced and can be seen in village fair and festivals. Decorating pooja

pandals or tajia structure was form of community work and Nandalal was

interested in such activities. While on his daily round to village school he

came across various crafts which delighted him.

―This fascination‖, K. G. Subramanyan writes, ―fed his desire to

become an artist. … Even after he became a renowned artist and educator,

he continued to see art and artisan practice as a connected panorama that

ensured aesthetic creativity in a modem environment.‖335

Nandalal keenly followed their methods and picked up certain

technical nuances like a faithful disciple. He had observed that rural areas

of India were adventurous in the use of colour on person, in textiles, in

toys and in paintings. He clearly saw that the art which harnessed the

335

Subramanyam, K.G., ‘The Rhythms of India,’ The Art of Nandalal Bose, San Diego Museum of Art, California, 2008, p. 92

156

vitality of folk art and rural simplicity could stand against the general rot

ushered by a misconstrued industrial revolution. E. B. Havell and Ananda

Coomaraswamy had already drawn attention to the indigenous craft

conventions of our country and made it an imperative concern for the

Swadeshi Art.

Nandalal had his early education at Kharaghpur, Monghyr. He

moved to Calcutta in the year 1897, for his high school. As he had no

interest in general education his parents wanted to put him in medical

college, but they failed and therefore he was admitted to commerce

stream, attach to the Presidency College in the year 1905.336

It was now

clear that he had no likening for formal education; he just wanted to be a

painter. Between, 1897- 1905 Nandalal saw Renaissance in cultural life of

Bengal. Swami Vivekanand had become prominent figure in India and

abroad for the praise of the national heritage of India. Bankim Chandra,

Rabindranath Tagore was in the forefront of the revival.

The literary journal Prabasi, which was launched by Ramananda

Chatterjee in 1901 from Allahabad,337

had within short time gained wide

circulation among the educated middle class. Numerous other journals

covered a wide area of interest, from political discussion, economic

336

Roop-Lekha, vol. xxvi Nos 1 and 2

337 The term Prabasi refers to a person or a community residing outside their native region and was

used in association with the large number of Bengali professionals who moved to northen India over the late 19

th century.

157

analyses, to poetry, history and studies of ancient texts. Besides articles

many known painters and artist found forum in which there work was

presented in reproductions.

Young Nandalal with such exhilarating air around him looked

forward to the new issue of Prabasi. His aim was to study the picture

plates published in the journal. His real education in art began from these

journals. Running around old book shops in North Calcutta, he would

browse through foreign illustrated magazines, to discover reproduction of

European old masters like Raphel. It was through Prabasi that Nandalal

was acquainted with works of Ravi Varma and Abanindranath

Tagore.338

The paintings Sujata and Buddha339

and Vajra Mukut by

Abanindranath left an abiding mark on Nandalal, and he started working

on similar themes.

Nandalal‘s debut as a painter in 1905 had coincided with the

Swadeshi movement that swept Bengal. The immediate impetus for the

Swadeshi movement was the decision by Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of

India, to partition Bengal into a Hindu majority west and Muslim majority

east. The politics of anti partition agitation came to be suffused with the

new flowering of Bengali literature, art, culture, and music.

338

The paintings of Ravi Varma and Abanindranath was reproduced in this journal. The star of the first issue of the journal was Ravi Varma, with seven of his mythological paintings reproduced with article on the artist by the editor.

339 See Plate No.48

158

Rabindranath Tagore, the doyen of Bengali intelligentsia raised his

voice against it. He wrote songs and led procession in the street of

Calcutta. He sang in the poetic challenge to the British ―You will cut the

bond decreed by providences you are so powerful, are you‖340

In 1905, Abindranath Tagore created the iconic image of the nation

as mother: robed in ascetic saffron, she carried the gift of food, clothing,

learning and spiritual salvation in her four hands, originally titled

Bangmata, the painting was renamed Bharatmata as example of Bengal‘s

generosity towards the cause of India as a whole.341

In 1902, at the age of twenty, Bose had first started painting in

secret during his years as a student of Commerce at the Presidency

College, Calcutta. Subsequently, he started taking lessons from Atul

Mitra, a student at the Government School of Art, Calcutta. Given that

Mitra was a student at the Draftmanship division, it is likely that Bose‘s

early training under Mitra was restricted to figurative and still life painting

in the academic realist style. Indeed, Bose‘s early paintings, for instance a

copy of Raphael‘s Madonna, reflects this academicism, as Kamal Sarkar

has pointed out342

. It was only in 1905, at the height of anti-Partition

340

Bose Sugata, This article was originally published in a catalogue accompanying the exhibit “Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882–1966).” The exhibit was organized by the San Diego Museum of Art in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

341 Bose Sugata, op cit.

342 Sarkar Kamal, Bharater O Bhashkar O Chitrashilpi, Calcutta, 1984, p. 88.

159

swadeshi movement in Bengal and the public display of Abanindranath

Tagore‘s Bharat-Mata, that Bose discovered his mentor. In the same year,

Bose sought out Tagore and enrolled himself at the Government School of

Art as a student in Tagore‘s advanced design class. This was the beginning

of Bose‘s formal art training. Bose‘s paintings produced between 1905

and 1910 bear testimony to the profound impact Tagore had made on the

artist.

In 1905 Nandalal joined the Government School of Art in Calcutta,

where Havell was the Principal and Abanindranath Tagore vice Principal.

Nandalal told them his ambition. He showed him few specimens of his art,

imitation of Raphel‘s, Madona, some crayon, studies of Greek sculpture

and some of his own drawings. Principal Havell approved his original

drawings.343

He was thus admitted to the Government Art School. After

attending the decorative art classes under Ishwari Prasad, he switched on

to Abanindranath classes.344

He quickely became the figure in the

movement to fashion a new Indian Art, a movement pioneered by his

teacher.

One day a famous scientist Jagadish Chand Bose along with Sister

Nivedita visited the School. Sister Nivedita was so delighted to see some

343

Roop- Lekha, op cit.

344 Ibid.

160

of Nandalal original drawings that she recommended his name to Lady

Herringham, who wanted to copy Ajanta mural.

Even Jagadish Chand Bose commissioned him to decorate his house

and Bose Institute (Basu Vijnana Mandir) in 1917. The greyish- purple

sandstone building of the Institute was of Pre- Islamic architecture, with

its ceilings painting in the great lecture hall, emulating Ajanta. For the

front wall, Nandalal chose the figure of Surya, the sun god driving a

seven-horsed chariot, while the rear wall was decorated with an elaborate

allegorical frieze, ‗The Triumph of Science and Imagination‘. It

represented intellect brandishing a naked sword, sailing down the sacred

river towards the true knowledge with his bride imagination playing the

flute by his side.345

In 1907, Nandalal got the prize for his painting Shiva Sati, in the

exhibition organised by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, which was

formed in 1907 by some English enthusiasts of Indian culture and few

Indian artists and scholars. Sir John Woodroffe, the chief justice of

Calcutta High Court, was the moving spirit behind the activities of the

society. The other member of the society was Thornton, an engineer by

profession and an amateur painter, and Norman Blunt an influential

345

Mitter, Partha, The Triumph of Modernism, India’s Artists and the avant garde 1922-1947, London, 2007, pp. 85-86

161

member of the English community in Calcutta.346

Sister Nivedita,

Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore also became its active

member whose work was to spearheading the newly ushered Bengal

School. Ordhendu Coomar Ganguly, also became its influential members

who later became the editor of prestigious art journal ‗Rupam‘347

which

was published from the society. Apart from an annual programme of

exhibitions and publications the society took interest in promoting Indian

art and artists.

The prize which Nandalal got for his painting Shiva Sati, he spent

the whole amount of Rs.500, on an art pilgrimage to discover the land of

his birth. He wanted to see the ancient and historical sites of art. He started

his tour from north, first he went to Patna then Banaras. Nandalal was

impressed by his north Indian tour and showed considerable enthusiasm

about the images of Buddha at Sarnath and the carved railings at Boddha

Gaya. The pages of his sketch book were filled with the sketching of the

elegant intricacies.348

When he visited Sasaram and saw Sher Shah‘s

Tomb, he was overpowered by the massive structure. But his response to

the geometrical or floral encrustations of Islamic architecture was

comparatively cool. We can find that most of his paintings illustrate non

346

Kowshik Dinker, Nandalal Bose, The Doyen of Indian Art, and Thakurta Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 277.

347 Thakurta, Tapati Guha, op. cit. p. 225.

348 Kowshik Dinker, op cit.

162

Islamic themes. Sati, Kaikeyi, Padmini, Dhritrashtra, Arjun were subject

of his paintings. On the other hand Abanindranath Tagore‘s paintings were

based on Islamic themes, like Shahjehan, Alamgir, Omar Khayyam and

more.

Nandalal‘s liking for Hindu and Buddhist themes was further

deepened by his encounter with South Indian art. The Shiva Nataraja, in

his cosmic Tandava dance, was a moving factor and he felt its power. The

elegant and asymmetrical temple structures of Kanchipuram, Tanjavur and

Maduri had more meaning then the famed Taj Mahal of Agra. The shore

temple at Mahabalipuram and the temples that raised their ‗Shikharas‘ on

the landscape of Southern plains appeared to him the epitome of the

Indian Vision.349

In 1910, Lady Herringham, a meticulous artist and an enthusiast of

Indian art visited India with the desire to copy the mural paintings in

Ajanta because after seeing Griffith‘s copies reproduce in the volume on

Ajanta, she felt that reproductions were probably not faithful to the

originals, because the material used in copying was oil, whereas the

murals in the caves of Ajanta were in water tempera.350

Oil was the heavy

medium and not easily amenable to free movement of the brush. With

349

Kowshik Dinker, op cit.

350 Kowshik Dinker, op. cit.

163

Havell‘s encouragement, she wanted to make fresh copies of these murals.

She came to India with her two assistants, Miss Dorothy Larcher and Miss

Luke 351

and on the request of Sister Nivedita, Nandalal and Asit Kumar

Haldar joined her at Ajanta.352

Nandalal was overwhelmed by the profound beauty of these murals.

At Ajanta, Nandalal‘s sessions of learning from the original springs of

Indian art was resumed with vigour. Till now he had seen only the

splendours of architecture and sculpture in his north and south Indian

tours. He had seen the forms of sculpted images at Konark,

Mahablipuram, Sarnath and Buddha Gaya. These were in solid volumes

tactile, rounded and full of vitality. But at Ajanta figures were released

from the grossness of stone, they were lithe and mobile and filled with

movement-walking, dancing, conversing, flying and praying in meditation

and in every conceivable attitude.353

The Ajanta, tour added new

dimension to Nandalal vision by acquainting himself with classical Indian

style of Ajanta which had a far reaching influence on his art.

In 1912 Nandalal got the opportunity to meet Japanese painter

Okakur. Nandalal was very much impressed by his philosophy of art

teaching and later he adopted the same in his teachings. According to

351

Kowshik Dinker, op cit.

352 Roop- Lekha , op cit.

353 Kowshik Dinker, op.cit. p. 27.

164

Okakura ―Art was a triangle with its three arms standing for tradition,

observation and originality,‖ he further says that if one relied only on

tradition the result would be vapid repetitions of old conventions and end

in boredom. If the second arm of the triangle, observation, was

emphasised then again the outcome would end in limitation of things and

would not attain the varieties of art. Finally, if one indulged in

indiscriminate originality, this would land one in utter confusion of a mad

house. Unless art was able to strike balance, to hold these three in poise, it

would fail to become aesthetically valid.354

It was largely through the influence and encouragement of the

Tagores that Nandalal was exposed to the art and ideals of East Asia.

Rabindranath‘s direct encounter with the power and scale of art in Japan

during his 1916 visit to that country led him to urge Indian artists to look

east in order to pioneer a fresh departure from the Swadeshi corpus of

ideals. He asked his host, Taikan, to send one of his students to India, and

artist Arai Kampo (1878–1945), traveled to Kolkata that year.355

His

arrival triggered a fruitful collaboration with Nandalal; Arai taught

Nandalal Japanese brush techniques while Nandalal explained the

354

Koshwik, Dinker, opcit. P.32.

355 Bose Sugata, This article was originally published in a catalogue accompanying the exhibit “Rhythms

of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882–1966).” The exhibit was organized by the San Diego Museum of Art in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

165

intricacies of the thirteenth-century eastern Indian sculptures of Konarak

in Orissa to the Japanese visitor.

In 1913, Nandalal joined ‗Bichitra‘356

as an art teacher on

Abindranath instance, which was located in Jorasanko House (House of

Tagore) where he came into contact with few Japanese artists. Among

them Okakura, Taikan, Hishiok, and Kampo Arai were some to name. In

1917 Nandalal Bose along with Kampo Arai visited Puri and Konark.

Kampo Arai worked with Nandalal in Bichitra studio also.

In 1919, Nandalal Bose joined Kala Bhavan in Shantiniketan as an art

teacher on Rabindranath Tagore invitation and quit his job at Indian

Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta. Nandalal‘s job at Shantiniketan gave

him the opportunity to experiment with murals.

In 1924 Nandalal was offered a unique opportunity to travel with

Rabindranath to Burma, China, and Japan. The poet‘s entourage on his

travels typically included a small but formidable team of intellectuals and

artists. Mukul Dey (1895–1989) was the artist who had accompanied

Rabindranath to Japan in 1916; Surendranath Kar (1892–1970) who

traveled with him on a voyage to Southeast Asia in 1927. In 1924, on the

356

It was the art club started by Abanindranath and Gaganendranath.Many prominent Bengali litterateurs, artistes and intellectuals were its member. And it would host evening gatherings around talks, poetry reading, dramatic performances or musical sorees. During the day it would function as an art class and studio- here the master and his first batch of students worked together, spreading an interest in new pictorial model of ‘Indian-style’ paintings.Visiting Japanese artist, Kampo Arai gave lessons in Japanese brush painting.

166

journey to East Asia, Rabindranath‘s two companions from Santiniketan

were Nandalal and Kshitimohan Sen (1880–1960), an erudite scholar of

Sanskrit and comparative religion. On this trip Rabindranath preached the

virtues of close interaction among Asian cultures. Stung by the passage of

the Immigration Act of 1924 (sometimes referred to as the Orientals

Exclusion Act) in the United States, some of Rabindranath‘s admirers

even established an Asiatic Association in Shanghai to foster solidarity

among all Asians.357

As the group travelled, Nandalal was somewhat disappointed to see

that painting and the other higher arts in China had ―become infected by

the Western virus,‖ as he termed it. He also noticed ―marvellous

paintings‖ (even though the value of a work Rabindranath received as a

gift from the titular emperor derived only from the ―seal impressed on

it‖).358

Nandalal also collected a few beautiful old rubbings and picked up

―prints, post cards, and books and also life stories of painters.‖ He himself

did a number of sketches as picture postcards and documented the trip in

photographs.

357

Bose Sugata, This article was originally published in a catalogue accompanying the exhibit “Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882–1966).” The exhibit was organized by the San Diego Museum of Art in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

358 Ibid.

167

In Japan Nandalal had the privilege of being hosted by Taikan,

Rabindranath‘s friend and the artist who had visited India, and was

introduced to masterpieces of Japanese art.

In 1921 he along with Asitkumar Haldar and Surendranath Kar,

was commissioned by Gwalior Darbar to copy murals at Bagh and

Ramgarh caves.359

These caves are situated in Madhya Pradesh and were

second only to Ajanta in importance. (Asitkumar Haldar had earlier been

requested by the Archaeological Department of Gwalior to submit a report

on the condition of these murals) The work of copying the Bagh murals,

gave Nandalal more idea of the traditions of paintings in India. Nandalal

Bose along with his colleague made some excellent copies for the Gwalior

state. At Bagh, Nandalal had some rough but delightful experiences. He

used his experience to teach his students, the technical aspect of ancient

Indian frescoes.

After Ajanta and Bagh experience Nandalal resolve to make mural

painting rather than miniature watercolour the cornerstone of his

teachings.360

He even wanted to learn from other traditions including

Western tempera.

359

Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p. 86.

360 Ibid. p. 86.

168

According to Nandalal Bose, ―we seek access now to all the artistic

traditions of the world. After knowing all that, if we still find Indian art

the best, we shall stick to it with great determination.... I don‘t see

anything wrong in such borrowing.‖Nandalal Bose even tried egg tempera

method in the Cheena Bhavan building.361

Nandalal exhorted his students

to observe minutely the envirous around them. He would say that endless

themes were strewn around and what one had to do was to observe,

understand and love them.If one is to strike an acquaintance with a tree,

the best way is to watch it continuously in the morning and noon, in the

evening and night.362

Having gained experience in egg tempera, Nandalal turned to

indigenous fresco technique, because Kala Bhavan library is an example

of Nandalal‘s first unsure attempt to emulate Ajanta and Bagh.

In 1927, Nandalal along with Narsingh Lal,363

completed the mural

on the front wall of the library.

Most of the murals at Kala Bhavan were adaptations from different

sources such as Ajanta, Egyptian murals, Persian miniatures or Chinese

motifs. The panels of eastern and western walls were of original

361

Ibid. p. 86.

362 Nandalal Bose, Roop- Lekha, vol.-xxvi, nos. 1 and 2.

363 A, traditional Jaipur painter who stayed in Santiniketan till 1933. And was a skilled craftsman in the

technique of Jaipur frescoes.

169

compositions. The western panel was painted by Nandalal which depicted

early morning Vaitalik in Shantiniketan where Rabindranath is shown

between group of girls and boys who are singing. The eastern panel had a

composition which illustrated the morning upasana held under a sal

trees.364

Nandalal‘s achievement was to assimilate the diverse techniques he

had experimented with, in a unified expression. In 1930, he completed his

first ambitious mural in Shantineketan, the agricultural science building,

based on Italian wet fresco technique. In this multiple-figure composition,

a lively observation of nature was firmly controlled by a fine sense of

design.365

The subject was Halakarshan (ploughing), a ceremony with which

Tagore inaugurated seasonal cultivation every year by ritually turning up

the earth with plough. Vriksha Ropan and Halakarshan were the two

rituals introduced in 1928 in Shantineketan as a part of Tagore concern for

environment.366

The design is divided into several panels. Gurudev is seen

lending a hand at ploughing the first furrow, with a plough drawn by three

pairs of bulls. In front of these a priest with offerings of coconut and

364

Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p.88.

365 Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p.88.

366 Ibid. p.88.

170

flowers held in his hands is sitting on an asana. Santhal girls are seen

following Gurudev blowing the conch and carrying fruits and flowers.367

According to Partha Mitter, in these work Nandalal replaced

historic murals with everyday life, such as cultivation and other form of

seasonal work, making Santhals the central figure in his composition,368

because murals were a kind of social art.

Nandalal‘s more impressive murals were produced between 1938

and 1945. In 1938, in keeping with Maharaja Sayaji Rao‘s tradition of

supporting national culture, the Gaekwad family invited him to decorate

the ancestral memorial, Kirti Mandir (Temple of Glory), in their capital,

Baroda.369

For these murals Nandalal went back to historicism as he felt the

commission demanded subjects more majestic than genre scenes. He made

a preliminary visit to Baroda on his way back from the Congress session at

Faizpur in 1938, revisiting the state in October 1939, and eventually

undertaking seven visits to Baroda to complete the project.

Nandalal had originally planned the whole work as interplay of

black and white to complement the predominantly white walls, relieving

the monotony with brightly coloured wall insets. This however proved to

367

Koswik Dinker, op.cit.

368 Mitter Parth, 2007, p.88.

369 Mitter Parth, 2007, op.cit. p. 89.

171

be unattainable. The actual production was shared with his students, the

master producing the outline drawing, to be filled in with colours by

student assistants. However, in order to impose an overall structural unity,

Nandalal made the finishing touches himself.370

The overall inspiration for the four large egg tempera panels was

the Buddhist Stupa.371

Nandalal‘s narrative sources ranged from the epics

and mythology to historic figures. In 1939, he completed the

Gangavatarana (Descent of the River Ganges) based on the mythology of

Shiva, on the South wall of the cenotaph, selecting the North wall the

following year for his painting of the medieval female saint Mirabai.

In 1943, after a gap of several years, he represented Tagore‘s play,

Natir Puja, inspired by a Buddhist story, on the East Wall.372

Finally, in

1945, for the remaining West Wall, he turned to the great epic

Mahabharata. Treated in a ‗wiry‘ linear style reminiscent of the Tibetan

thang-ka, the impressive Abhimanyu Vadha (Slaying of the Young Hero

Abhimanyu), consists of a complex linear composition endowed with

febrile energy, a scene full of frenzied movement and furious action. This

as well as several other scenes at Baroda, including the second version of

the Gangavatarana, show influence of Tibetan painting. The Kirti Mandir

370

Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p. 89.

371 Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p. 89.

372 Mitter, Parth, 2007, op.cit.p. 90.

172

was a grand project covering 502 meter square, a work that brought to a

climax Nandalal‘s ideas about murals as well as vindicating his strong

sense of design.373

Nandalal remained alive as an artist for another two-and-a-half

decades. Although the 1940s were a turbulent decade for Bengal, India,

and indeed, the whole of Asia, Nandalal did not paint the horrors of

famine and partition that was left to his younger contemporaries,

Somenath Hore (1921–2006) and Zainul Abedin (1914–1976). There is,

however, a deep sense of irony in his painting Annapurna,374

which was

created in 1943, the year of the great Bengal famine in which three million

people died. More than three decades earlier, Nandalal had painted a

serene picture titled Annapurna and Shiva. Now, in a combination of

tempera and wash, he created the haunting Annapurna and Rudra (later

simply titled Annapurna). Annapurna, who is seated on a lotus, holds a

bowl of rice in her hands. Before her stands Shiva, reduced to a skeleton

holding a begging bowl. Nandalal‘s mood in the year of the great Bengal

famine is captured in one of his letters: ―I have realized the following in a

373

Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p. 90.

374 See Plate No. 49.

173

dream,‖ he wrote. ―Give up your attempts to find God; go on creating

what you like; you are an artist, paint picture after picture.‖375

Speaking of the Indian style of painting, he said, ―We see things

with our mind‘s eye, see it from the top and sides or from below as we

please. Once you develop a love for a thing you can see it from all angles.

This is the Indian way. The west is totaly different; you have to sit before

the physical gross body and then draw and paint.‖376

He further said that,

―Their art, instead of being universal, tends to become intellectual. They

have no truck with the heart, they are all for the head. Unless it is heart

oriented art it cannot touch the heart. Art cannot have universal appeal

unless it touched the heart and starts from within.‖377

Thus for Nandalal art

must be closely related to comman men.

3:3:1 Nandalal Bose’s association with Mahatma Gandhi: For Gandhi,

art and Nandalal were synonymous and he was proud and happy to have

'discovered' Nandalal as the artist of the Indian National Congress. On the

other hand Nandalal too was witnessing how Gandhi strove to emancipate

the country from colonial rule and soon became one of Gandhi's admirers.

375

Bose Sugata, This article was originally published in a catalogue accompanying the exhibit “Rhythms

of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882–1966).” The exhibit was organized by the San Diego Museum

of Art in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

376 Nandalal Bose, Roop- Lekha, vol.-xxvi, nos. 1 and 2.

377Nandalal Bose, Roop- Lekha, vol.-xxvi, nos. 1 and 2.

174

His respect for the Mahatma increased when his action program

broadened its purview to include the economic independence of India and

the strengthening of its widespread artisan traditions to achieve this.

However, it was Rabindranath Tagore‘s art school Kala Bhavan at

Santiniketan that became the critical ground for Bose‘s experiments with

the ideals of Gandhian Swadeshi in art and education. The institution had

first begun as a primary education center in response to the swadeshi

impetus for indigenous education systems in 1901. In 1919, Tagore set up

the art school Kala Bhavan and invited Nandalal Bose to direct the school.

The institution gradually expanded to include Shantiniketan, the Institute

for Rural Reconstruction, in the neighboring village of Surul in 1921. In

certain ways, the education philosophy of Santiniketan anticipated

Gandhi‘s ideals of indigenous education and rural revival. For Tagore, the

founder of Santiniketan, proactive communitarian action, mobilization of

indigenous knowledge systems, and judicial use of natural resources far

overweighed the imperatives for immediate political sovereignty of the

nation. This idea shaped the pedagogic impetus at Santiniketan.378

At

Santiniketan, Bose‘s art training was thus aligned with Gandhi‘s ideals of

indigenous education and rural revival. Gandhi was intimately familiar

378

Tagore Rabindranath,City and Village, Viswa –Bharti, 1928.

175

with the pedagogic ideals of Santiniketan, having visited the institution a

number of times.

Obviously, Gandhi's focus on India's artisan traditions had a special

appeal for Nandalal. Nandalal Bose‘s contact with Mahatma Gandhi woke

up the patriot in him. Gandhi‘s Non Cooperation Movement of 1921 left

an everlasting impact on his mind and he became an ardent follower of

Khadi and Charkha. He considered himself the spiritual disciple of

Mahatma Gandhi. The upheaval of the Non Cooperation Movement made

him restless and uneasy in his mind. During the movement, Calcutta was

full of patriotic fervor. Young and old left their work. Meetings and

processions were in full swing.

Nandalal was moved by Gandhi‘s respect for the common man. His

concern for the common man led him to give simple art lessons to

housewives and to incorporate women‘s domestic art, such as alpana, in

the Kala Bhavan curriculum. He took personal interest in training, women

students in decorative art. He wanted to arouse an aesthetic sense in

women who in their turn would influence their families.379

In 1922, Gandhiji visited Shantiniketan where he came to know of

Nandlal‘s role in rural reconstruction programme at the University. This

common interest brought them together. The base of Gandhiji‘s political

379

Deb, C. Quoted in Parth Mitter, 2007, op. cit. p. 81.

176

revolution was rural India. He believed that the real India resides in the

villages. Gandhiji was very much aware that many of the Congress leaders

were from the cities, and hence they had no idea of indigenous art.

Nandalal's admiration for Gandhi is clearly evident in the famous

lino-cut380

he did in the wake of Gandhi's historic Dandi March in March

1930. His war against the Salt-law that charged the entire nation was

symbolized in a black-white lino-cut of modest size depicting Mahatma

stepping out with his walking stick, evoking a sense of strong will to

overcome all obstacles. That this image eventually became a visual

prototype of the iconic image of Gandhi is now well known.

Incidentally, Nandalal did not come to know Gandhi personally

until 1935, when Gandhi sought Bose's help to install an art and craft

exhibition at the Lucknow session of Congress in 1935. However, the first

such exhibition to be organized in connection with a convention of the

Indian National Congress took place at Indore in 1934. Gandhi recognized

the importance of such exhibitions and believed that it should continue at

all subsequent Congress session.381

In 1935, on Gandhiji‘s suggestion, Nandalal went to Lucknow with

his students of Kala Bhavan to set up an art exhibition at the Lucknow

380

See Plate No. 50

381 Appasamy Jaya, Abindranath Tagore and the art of his time, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi

177

Session of the Indian National congress in 1935. Binodebehari, Prabhat

Mohan and Manoj accompanied Nandalal to Lucknow where Asit Kumar

joined them. Nandlal undertook to arrange a historical panorama of Indian

art. Copies of the Ajanta and Bagh murals, medieval paintings of the Jain,

Rajput and Mughal schools, Kaligha Pats and works of Abanindranath and

his disciples were shown in the exhibition. A catalogue was specially

brought out for the occasion with an introduction written by Binodbehari.

Novel gates were designed. Mhatre, an architect from Bombay supervised

the construction.

At one point, it was noticed that a large space covered with

corrugated tin sheets presented an unseemly sight. In a hurry, Jamini Roy

was asked to paint large portraits to cover them. It is interesting to note

that there was no money left to pay for Jamini Roy‘s service. He agreed to

do the work on the condition that he would be allowed to take away his

work after the Session.

Gandhiji was very pleased by the work of Nandalal. In his opening

speech, at the exhibition Gandhiji paid a handsome tribute to Nandalal‘s

efforts. He said ―Let me tell you that you will have an inkling of the inside

even from where you are still sitting. For in front of you are no triumphal

arches but there are simply but exquisitely decorated walls done by Sjt.

Nandalal Bose, the eminent artist from Shantiniketan and his co-workers

178

who have tried to represent all the villager‘s crafts by simple artistic

symbols. And when you go inside the art gallery on which Babu Nandalal

Bose has lavished his labours for weeks, you will feel, as I did, like

spending hours together there.‖382

The Faizpur session of the Congress followed almost on the heels of

the one held in Lucknow. Nandalal received a call from Gandhiji to

decorate the Congress Pavilion at Faizpur in Maharashtra. Nandalal

informed Gandhiji that he know nothing about architecture as he was a

painter. Gandhiji replied, ―Having received a little, our hearts want a full

measure. I don‘t need a master pianist; a fiddler is enough for me!‖383

So

Nandlal decorated the pavilion with ordinary materials which were locally

available. In the main pandal where the exhibition was arranged, Nandalal

had the ingenious idea of sprouting wheat seedlings around the central

pole, and created greenery in the middle of a graveled floor space.

Gandhiji was very pleased and said in his opening speech of the exhibition

(December 25, 1936): ―Credit for the arrangements here belongs to the

architect Sjt. Mhatre and the artist Sjt. Nandalal Bose. When Nandababu

responded to my invitation a couple of months ago, I explained to him

what I wanted and left it to him to give concrete shape to the conception

382

Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, publication division, Govt. of India, New Delhi, 1999, vol. 68, p. 334

383 Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 62, 1979, p. 127

179

for he is a creative artist and I am none. God has given me the sense of art

but not the organs to give it concrete shape. He has blessed Sjt. Nandalal

Bose with both. I am thankful that he agreed to take upon himself the

whole burden of organizing the artistic side of the exhibition and he came

and settled down here weeks ago to see to everything himself. The result

is that the whole of Tilaknagar is an exhibition in itself and so it begins not

where I am going to open it but at the main gateway which is a fine piece

of village art… Please remember that Nanda babu has depended entirely

on local material and local labour to bring all the structures here into

being.‖384

Right from the opening day of the session Gandhi repeated his

praise for Nandalal almost every day. As K. G. Subramanyan writes,

―Before the Faizpur session, Nandalal's reputation as an artist had been

confined primarily to the elite artistic community in Bengal (and

elsewhere), but Gandhi's unstinting praise of his work brought him

national fame: in essence, he became the artist laureate of nationalist

India.‖385

After the Faizpur Session of the Congress, Nandlal enjoyed

Gandhiji‘s affection and became his confidant in artistic matters. In 1937,

384

Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi vol. 70, 1999, p. 212

385 Subramanyam,K.G. op cit. P 99

180

Gandhiji intervened with the industrialist G. D. Birla to provide a

subvention for the Kala Bhawan which he affectionately called Nanda

Babu‘s art school.386

The next Congress session was held in Haripura, near Bardoli, in

1938. Once again Nandalal Bose was asked to decorate the Congress

pavilion. He pleaded is inability due to his illness, but this was not the

reason. There was another reason for his refusal. On hearing that Nandalal

was once again awarded this assignment of national importance, some

local artists gave expression to their chauvinistic feelings. Why a Bengali

should be requisitioned for work in Gujarat where comparable talents

were available there.387

But Nandalal took the project because he was

unhappy about his refusal.

Consequently Nandalal, proceeded to Haripura and studied the site

and surveyed the availability of local materials and craftsmanship. At

Haripura, Nandalal turned the sprawling area into an exquisite example of

environmental art. Gates, pillars, exhibition, cluster of stalls, thatched

shelters, landscape garden, meeting areas and residential tents were all

decorated with local material of bamboo, thatch and khadi of different

hues. Earthen pots and vessels were adorned with designs; tassels of

386

Letter to Tagore, 6th

November 1937, Collected Work of Mahatma Gandhi,Lxvi, p. 289.

387 Kowshik Dinkar, op cit.

181

paddy grass hung in rows, baskets and cane work – made by the hands of

local craftspeople – were all used to lend the session an elegant rural

atmosphere. As a significant component of this huge public art Nandalal

planned separate paintings which were later to become famous as

Haripura posters depicting Indian life in all its variety.

Nandalal painted nearly eighty posters himself, mostly about two

feet by two feet large in size, and his student and teacher associates then

made close copies of them, multiplying their number to close to 400.

Created on handmade papers stretched on strawboard, these paintings or

posters were executed with brilliant colours prepared and mixed from the

local earth pigments. Bamboo, thatch, and homespun cotton were

employed to construct the display panels all around. Gandhi wanted the

posters to catch the attention of passersby, so they were displayed at the

meeting compound's main gate and on the exterior of the pavilions. One

can imagine that the whole vista turned out to be a public art of a huge

hitherto unseen scale. Nandalal Bose himself writes with enthusiasm,

'Following the pata style we did a large number of paintings and hung

them everywhere on the main entrance, inside the volunteers camps, even

in the rooms meant for Bapuji and Subhasbabu, the President.388

388

Nandalal Bose, Vision and Creation, Visva Bharti, 1999, p 235

182

Haripura posters celebrate the Indian rural life and culture, sharing a

vibrant earthy color palette and bold, energetic lines with a vividly

modernist graphic quality. A sweeping look at the available images

reveals that these posters draw attention to the different activities,

professions and trades that constellate the moments of village daily life in

a picturesque continuum.

Most of the imageries culled from his observed reality around were

developed from the rapid sketches Nandalal did, during his survey of rural

areas and people living near the location. The swift, spontaneous strokes

contouring the forms and figures encourage an equally effortless viewing

reminiscent of the character and temperament of Kalighat pata and various

other folk paintings that eschew any labored or affected idiom. The charm

and the playful gaiety exuded by the linguistic features blend perfectly

well with the contents depicting subjects like Hunters, Musicians, Bull

Handlers, Carpenter, Smiths, Spinner, Husking women and modest scenes

of rural life including animal rearing, child-nursing and cooking.389

The

simplicity of these works also lies in the unvarying use of the point-cusped

niche that frames the principal subject. The vigorous dynamic forms of

certain figures of course cut across the frame thus saving the images from

monotony.

389

See Plate No. 51 a& 51 b.

183

These types of paintings of bamboo and reed structures symbolic of

Gandhian philosophy are termed ―Gandhian aesthetics.‖390

In this way,

Nandalal Bose created awareness of the National Movement among men,

which was his contribution to the nation and he worked without any fee.

He participated in the embellishment of the entire nation‘s aspirations.

Though folk in spirit, the work had technical brilliance and

sophistication of classical art. According to Binodebihari

Mukhopadhyaya: In these Haripura panels painted for the session, there is

an ineluctable harmony of tradition and study based on observation. Each

poster is different from the next in form as well as in colour, and yet there

runs all through a strong undercurrent of emotional unity, lending a

familial stamp. The artist has eye on the contemporary situation, has

worked out his own goal. The stream of form and colour which flows over

the subject, subordinating it, brings these posters into kinship with mural

art.‖391

According to R. Siva Kumar, the Haripura panels should be

―considered not only as the culmination of his interest in folk paintings but

also as the next stage in his experiments in murals.‖392

Further, according

390

Nandalal Bose, Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 1966, p. 32

391 Mukhopadhyaya, B. B., Chitrakatha, p. 265.

392 R. Siva Kumar, “The Santiniketan Murals: A Brief History” in R. Siva Kumar, Jayanta Chakrabarty, and

Arun K. Nag, eds. The Santiniketan Murals (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1995), 5-78, 24.

184

to Mitter, ―the strong sense of formal design in these panels suggests his

apprenticeship to Ajanta rather than the amorphous wash technique of

oriental art.‖393

Along with a group of Abanindranath Tagore‘s students,

Bose had visited the 5th-century Buddhist caves at Ajanta in 1910 to copy

the frescoes. His subsequent works bear testimony to the deep impression

these 5th-century mural paintings had made on the artist. According to

scholars, Bose‘s experience at Ajanta finally allowed the artist to break

from the ―Oriental style‖ wash paintings of his mentor Abanindranath

Tagore and the Bengal School. The overarching scholarly impulse, then,

has been to map the Haripura panels within Bose‘s oeuvre to recuperate a

genealogy of the artist‘s stylistic evolution.

In his essay on 'Art and Artists in Twentieth Century Calcutta',

Tarun Mitra describes Nandalal thus,

"Nandalal was well-versed in the art history and traditions of many

civilisations and the grammar and techniques of their art. Yet he absorbed

their elements so successfully that they appear to be an extension of his

expressive self. His nationalism made the synthesis totally Indian,

perfecting the art of concealing a varied art. As teacher, however, he gave

his students practically total freedom. He had the catholicity of taste to

recognise the genius of his pupil Ramkinkar Vaij, so alien to his own, and

also to admire the paintings of Rabindranath Tagore, belonging to a totally

different world".394

393

Mitter, The Triumph of Modernism, 83.

394Mitra, Tarun, 'Art and Artists in Twentieth Century Calcutta'.

185

3:3:2 Search for Individual Ididenty Avant –Garde

In the year 1917, Rabindranath Tagore established Vishva Bharti. The aim

of this university was all round development, in his own words, ‗to study

the mind of man in its realisation of different aspects of truth from diverse

points of view.‘ This was not to be a degree orientated establishment, but

rather one, where East and West met in mutual respect and where

education would be conducted in the serene rural setting of Shantiniketan,

where the community of teachers and students would coexist, not in the

rigid and formal way of the English education system, but in one of

complete freedom, interdependence and self- reliance.

In 1919, as the leaders of world assembled at Versailles in France to re

construct a world destroyed by the worst war in history, In the same year

Tagore returned his Knighthood in protest, against the massacre of

hundreds of innocent Indians at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar by General

Dyer, and in the same year he opened the Kala Bhavan, the new art wing

at his university. He invited Nandalal Bose to be the part of this university.

Like Rabindranath Tagore, Bose was also of opinion that education be

broad base; that tradition, though of immense importance, must not be

permitted to hamper the artists personal development, that they are

encouraged to acquire from the west and any other sources whatever

knowledge and skill they considered enriching. This was the sort of

approach the Bauhaus had adopted at its inception in Weimar.

186

An exhibition of Bauhaus artists was held in Calcutta in 1922 to

marks the beginning of avant-garde art in India, both Guha-Thakurta and

Mitter assert. As Mitter writes: ―The radical formalist language of

modernism offered Indian artists, such as Rabindranath Tagore and Jamini

Roy, a new weapon of anti-colonial resistance. In their intellectual battle

with colonialism, they readily found allies among the Western avant-garde

critics of urban industrial capitalism, leading them to engage for the first

time with global aesthetic issues.‖395

Moving away from the realism of the

colonial art schools and the revivalist visual language of Abanindranath

Tagore‘s Bengal School, artists such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941),

Jamini Roy (1887-1972), and Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938)

embraced a modernist simplification of form in the 1930s.

Simultaneously, Amrita Shergil (1913-1941), made rural India a surrogate

for her own gendered location within the larger nationalist struggle. Along

with the primitivists in the West, Indian artists turned to, day to day life.

This idea of the avant-garde is well aligned with Theodor Adorno‘s

vision of the avant-garde as articulated in Aesthetic Theory.396

Resistance

to and negation of societal conventions characterize Adorno‘s avant-garde.

In Mitter‘s text, the societal conventions appear in the guise of the

395

Mitter, Parth, 2007, op cit p. 10

396 Theodor W. Adorno, Asthetic Theory, translated by, Robert Hullot- Kentor, 1997.

187

dominant rhetoric of nationalism. Autonomous art, in Adorno‘s sense,

does not, however, have the ability to sublate the social dimensions that it

negates. It has no specific use value. Its only purpose is to resist and to

exist in itself. Having advertently or inadvertently adopted Adorno‘s

avant-garde, Mitter‘s text is troubled by artists such as Nandalal Bose

(1882-1966) who strategically aligned themselves with the Gandhian

movement to make art practice into a distinct communitarian activity.

To contextualize the Indian artist‘s engagement with European

modernism, Mitter puts forward the idea of a ―virtual cosmopolis,‖ a term

that allows Mitter to counter charges of derivativeness that had been

leveled at modernist Indian art in this and subsequent periods. The ―virtual

cosmopolis‖ is a cosmopolis that is not a defined geopolitical territory but

resides in the imagination. Borrowing Benedict Anderson‘s idea of the

nation as an imagined community, Mitter suggests that modernity too

created a transnational imagined community brought into existence

through print capitalism and the hegemony of the English language. To

explain this community‘s critical engagement with Western modernism,

Mitter proposes the term ―virtual cosmopolis.‖ As Mitter writes:

The hybrid city of the imagination engendered elective affinities

between the elites of the center and the periphery on the level of intellect

and creativity. […] The encounters of the colonial intelligentsia with

modernity were inflected through virtual cosmopolitanism. One of the

products of such encounters was Global privimitivism and the common

front made against urban industrial Capitalism and the ideology of

188

progress. […] Primitivism was not anti-modern; it was a critical form of

modernity that affected the peripheries no less than the west. Primitivists

did not deny the importance of technology in contemporary life they

simply refused to accept the teleological certainty of modernity.397

Having adopted Adorno‘s avant-garde, Mitter‘s own text mimics a

unidirectional and teleological unfolding of modernism in India, a

narrative that yet again replicates the metanarrative of Western

modernism. For Mitter, the ―first phase of modernism‖ is characterized by

the Indian artist‘s engagement with primitivism as a resistance to colonial

modernity concludes in 1947, with the formation of the Independent

Indian nation-state.398

Mitter, signals the Bombay-based Progressive

Artists Group (established in 1947), as the ―main architects of Indian

modernism, which came to fruition later in Nehruvian India.‖399

The

Progressive Artists Group‘s engagement with internationalist modernism

and abstraction then is central to the next phase of modern Indian art.

This places the modernists of the 1930s and the early 1940s in place

of the historical avant-garde, leading to the true avant-garde of the

Progressive Artists Group, an avant-garde that was purportedly anti-

institutional and revolutionary. Other scholars such as Yashodhara Dalmia

397

Mitter Parth, 2007, op.cit. pp. 11-12.

398 Ibid. p. 10.

399 Ibid. p. 227.

189

reiterate the same argument.400

In Dalmia‘s description, the Bombay-based

Progressive Artists Group too emerge as both the principal architects of

Indian modernism and the first true avant-garde. With the coming of the

Progressive Artists Group, the Indian modernism finally catches up and

becomes one with the logical unfolding of modernism in the West. It is

with the Progressive Artists Group that there is a complete break with

tradition and earlier historicist modes of depiction practiced by the artists

of the Bengal School. The visual language of abstraction posed by the

Progressive Artists Group is thus entirely new.

3:4 Individual Styles

3:4:1 Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938): The first major response to

modernism was a fascination with Cubism, which had become the most

widely emulated artistic style of the world. The pioneering figure in this

context was Gaganendranath Tagore, who came in prominence in 1917

with a series of cartoon lithograph. Since 1870 in Bengal, caricature had

been a prime device in art and literature for exposing pretension and

mocking contemporary manners. The satirical tradition continued into the

400

Dalmia, Yashodhara,The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001.

190

20th century but few matched the unsentimental eye of Gaganendranath

Tagore.401

The first major breakthrough in modernism came with

Gagandranath Tagore (1867-1938), who was the eldest brother of

Abanindranath Tagore and nephew of Rabindranath Tagore. Although he

was closely associated with the aesthetic values of the Bengal School, he

functioned largely outside its stylistic influence.

His exposure to art practices all around the world helped him to

create a distinctly original style of painting. At one hand he was inspired

by the Japanese wash technique and on the other by the cubistic, futuristic

and expressionist trends of European art practices.

In spite of the eclecticism of his outlook, his vision and technique

were very individual. Gaganendranath‘s great sense of humour and satire

found expression in some remarkable caricatures, which primarily aimed

at commenting on the erosion of social and moral values under the impact

of the colonial rule.

His satires pinpointed the hypocrisies and contradictions within

society. He was responsible for establishing ‗Jorasanko (the Tagore

401

Modernism in India - Islamic manuscripts, www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/.../Mitter-2001-Art-188-199.

191

residence) Theatre‘ in 1867 and was actively involved with designing

stage settings and costumes for various plays. Some of his art works

display a remarkable influence of theatre.

Although Gaganendranath did not received any formal education

but was trained under the British School, water colourist Harinarayan

Bandopodhyay.

In 1907 he founded Indian Society of Oriental Art with his brother

Abanindranath Tagore. Between, 1906-1910, he assimilated the Japanese

brush technique and far Eastern pictorial conventions into his own work.

From 1910 until 1914 he experimented with black ink and

developed his own approach. His Chaitanya series and Pilgrim series are

the example of this experiment.

Between 1915 and 1919, with the help of his brother he set up the

Bichitra Club in the Tagore family. The Club served as an important social

intellectual and artistic hub of cultural life in Calcutta, where many artists,

including Nandalal Bose, A.K. Haldar and Suren Kar worked on their

paintings.

According to Parth Mitter, Gaganendranath Tagore (1867–1938)

was the only Indian painter before the 1940s that made use of the language

and syntax of Cubismin his painting.402

Older than Abanindranath by a

402

Mitter Parth, op cit. P. 18.

192

few years, Gaganendranath was an individualist, who impressed people

with his intellect and personal charm.

The English painter, William Rothenstein met him in 1910 and was

very influenced with him. The former Governor of Bengal, the Marquess

of Zetland, was a particular admirer of his, commenting on his dynamism

tempered by an inner serenity and refinement.403

Always keen to experiment, Gaganendranath began in the 1880s

with ‗phrenological‘ portraits inspired by his uncle‘s work, followed by

delicate pen-and-brush paintings, learned from the visiting Japanese

Nihon-ga painter, Taikan.404

He was inspired by the visiting Japanese artist and other far eastern

styles. In 1907 along with his brother Abanindranath he founded Indian

Society of Oriental Art and joined the Oriental Art Movement.

According to Pran Nath Mago, both Abanindranath and

Gaganendranath belonged to the period of social, economic and political

change in India. It was a period when in art as in politics and socio-

economic sphere, there were efforts to discover national identity.

In the early year of the 20th century, the active struggle for

independence adopted Swadeshi as its motto. During this period,

403

Ibid. p 18

404 Ibid. p 19

193

Shantiniketan became the centre of so called revivalist style (or the Bengal

School) under the leadership of Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose.

But it was Gaganendranath who, for the first time, made serious attempts

to come to terms with modern European art while simultaneously striving

for a personal style.

He broke away from school bound traditions and conventions,

worked out individual style, and gave new direction to art movement in

India. Thus he abandoned the ideological revivalism embraced by the

Bengal School of Art and took up caricature to satirize the westernised

middle class of urban Bengal. He secured popularity in 1917, when many

of his shrewd cartoons were published in Modern Review.

In his caricatures, Gaganendranath wanted to highlight the nature of

Indian society at the time when the struggle for Indian Independence from

British rule was just beginning. He wanted to expose the hypocrisy of the

Hindu priesthood as well as rich westernised Indians who had lost sight of

the value of their own culture.405

Gaganendranath Tagore, caricatures appeared in books during the

early year of the 19th century.Adbhut Loke (1915), Virup Vajra (1917),

and Reform Screams (1921).According to Mulk Raj Anand, ―These

portfolios are very rare. I believe, that not only are they very important as

405

See Plate No.52 a, 52 b, 52 c & 52 d

194

the social history of the epoch in which Gaganendranath lived, but they

constitute some of the finest caricatures done in India since the death of

the Rajput century of the 18th

century.‖406

In the preface of Virup Vajra, Gaganendranath Tagore wrote,

―When deformities grow unchecked, but are cherished by blind habit, it

becomes the duty of the artist to show that they are ugly and vulgar and

therefore abnormal.‖407

This reveals the artist‘s awareness of the deformities which he

could see in society. And from the reminiscences published after the death

of Gaganendranath Tagore, by Dr. Brajendranath Seal, the historian of

Bengali literature, it becomes clear that he also knew the causes of the

deformities. Himself descended from a landlord family, and yet brought

up in the era of early industrial enterprise in India, Gaganendranath was

conscious of the impact of Britain on India.408

His most critical was the Reform Screams, (published in 1921)

which comment on the Report of the Indian Constitutional Reforms: ‗The

Montague-Chelmsford Reform.‘ The Report formed the basis of the

Government of India Act 1919, which came in to operation early in 1921.

406

Anand Mulk Raj, Gaganendranath Tagore’s Realm of the Absurd,

http://www.chitralekha.org/articles/gaganendranath-tagore/gaganendranath-tagore.

407 Ibid.

408 Anand Mulk Raj, Gaganendranath Tagore’s Realm of the Absurd,

http://www.chitralekha.org/articles/gaganendranath-tagore/gaganendranath-tagore.

195

The drawings in Reform Screams revealed Gaganendranath as a bold

nationalist, which must be acknowledged as a significant pictorial

document of that period of the independence struggle. Obviously,

Gaganendranath had observed crucial contemporary political events for

nearly three years (1919-1921) and gave them expressive form. The

reforms of 1919 did not satisfy the national aspirations of our countrymen

and its effect upon the national struggle for independence had been like

fresh fuel. Mahatma Gandhi was at first inclined to try to make the

reforms work, but in a special session held in Calcutta in September 1920,

he changed his decision, and the famous resolution of Non-cooperation

was adopted by the Congress party. The object of the National Congress

was now defined as the attainment of Swaraj (self-rule) by all legitimate

and peaceful means. Swarajya was taken to imply 'self-rule' within the

Empire if possible, without if necessary.409

Around 1915, Gaganendranath withdraw himself from his brother‘s

nationalist preoccupations, he moved into a poetic fairytale world drawing

upon the Bengali stage and literature. While literature nourished his

imagination, unlike the orientalists, he was not interested in painterly

historicism. It was at this juncture that he discovered Cubism‘s

409

Parimo Ratan, Gaganendranath Tagore’s Satirical Drawings and Caricatures, artetc. News&Views,

June 2012.

196

possibilities, as he later confessed to the journalist Kanhaiyalal Vakil, ‗the

new technique is really wonderful as a stimulant‘410

Gaganendranath was a non- conformist. In spite of his family close

association with revivalism, he kept outside the pale of the parochial

orthodoxy of Modern Indian Art. He remained a free painter all through,

free from fetish of all kinds- oriental or occidental.411

According to Parth Mitter, in early 1922, Gaganendranath seized

the ‗modernist moment‘ to realize his artistic vision through

cubism,412

before that he was best known for his brilliantly savage

lithographs caricaturing the social mores of colonial Bengal.

Rabindranath Tagore, his uncle commented on his art, thus, in

1938: "What profoundly attracted me was the uniqueness of his creation, a

lively curiosity in his constant experiments, and some mysterious depth in

their imaginative value. Closely surrounded by the atmosphere of a new

art movement...he sought out his own un trodden path of adventure,

attempted marvellous experiments in colouring and made fantastic trials in

the magic of light and shade."413

410

In Bombay Chronicle(30th

June 1926) Quoted in Mitter Parth, 2007, op,cit. p.23.

411 Roy Kshitis,Gaganendranath Tagore, Contemporary Indian Series, Lalit Kala, Academi, New Delhi,

1964, p.ix

412 Ibid. and See Plate No. 53 a & 53 b.

413 Anand Mulk Raj, Gaganendranath Tagore’s Realm of the Absurd,

http://www.chitralekha.org/articles/gaganendranath-tagore/gaganendranath-tagore.

197

Rabindranath Tagore used to describe Gaganendranath as, ‗an ideal

of completeness in life.‘414

His artistic make-up was one wholesome

entity, and whatever walk of life he tread, he gave it an artistic

orientalisation, flavouring each of his artistic pursuits with daring

originality of conception and execution of a bewildering variety of themes

in different styles and techniques.

The paintings of Gaganandernath were well received in daily news

papers. The Englishman, which had been following his artistic career

closely, described his Cubism as a new phase of oriental art,

complimenting the artist on his beautiful colours.415

While the Statesman

admitted the difficulty of appreciating Cubism‘s revolutionary language, it

praised the painting, ‗Symphony‘ for successfully blending ‗rigid telling

cubist lines with mysterious lighting effects reminiscent of Rembrandt.‘416

Forward, found him to be one of the finest painters of light,

confessing that the appeal of his works lay in their beautiful colours not to

mention their intelligibility. Above all the Englishman, crowned him the

‗master of modern art in Bengal‘.417

414

Roy Kshitis,Gaganandernath Tagore, Contemporary Indian Art Series, Lalit Kaka Academi, New Delhi, 1964, p.i.

415 Quoted in Parth Mitter, 2007, op. cit. p. 21.

416 Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p.21.

417 Ibid p.22.

198

The largest number of paintings of Gaganendranath now forms part

of Rabindra-Bharati Society's collection at Jorasanko. Though

Gaganendranath Tagore, who symbolised the shift in taste from Victorian

naturalism and history painting to non-representational art, Parth Mitter,

explores the impact of the Bauhaus exhibition on artists in Calcutta.

Initially, Gaganendranath echoed the orientalist and nationalist

preoccupations of Abanindranath Tagore, but moved on to find a new

visual diction through Cubism, while remaining rooted in his cultural

milieu.

He became the first modernist to explore Analytical Cubism before

the 1940s and Parth Mitter, rightly calls him ―Poetic- Cubist‖418

. Colonial

historians like W. G. Archer found it hard to frame Gaganendranath within

the western canon, and termed his cubist experiments ―bad imitations of

Picasso‖,419

even critics like Stella Kramrisch and Benoy Sarkar

responded to his poetic worlds filled with prismatic light as expressions

of ‗pure‘ art. Archer‘s, position is still echoed by many western scholars

who remain indifferent to the discourses taking place outside New York,

Paris, Berlin or London.

418

Ibid p. 22.

419Archer W. C, India and Modern Art, London, 1959.

199

According to Jaya Appaswami, ―Gaganendranath Tagore started

paintings at an advance age, although he was very much involved in the

new art movement in the South Verandha of Jorasanko. He painted for his

own pleasure and attempted a wide range of subjects of particular interest

or satirical caricatures of the society of his time. Gaganendranath‘s

fascination for theatre, photography and play of light and shade is

reflected in his images.

Although Gaganendranath was very experimental in his visual

language his cubism was not exactly what was practiced in Paris in the

early 20th century. As Jaya Appaswami says that the forms are created

from small angular shapes, used to achieve a kind of futurist

disequilibrium and motion.‖420

3:4:2 Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941): Apart from being a poet, he

was a philosopher, an educationalist, an economist, a theatre director, the

founder of a University among many other things. In India, Rabindranath

Tagore is probably known most widely today as the first non white poet to

be awarded the Noble Prize for Literature.

According to K. G. Subramanyam, in India Tagore is a national

figure side by side with Gandhiji. If Gandhi is embodiment of the

country‘s national resurgence with a plan for political action that would

420

Appaswami Jaya, Circle of Art; The Three Tagores, commerorating the 150th

birth anniversary of R. N. Tagore, National Gallery of Modern Art. 2011.

200

not sacrifice broad human considerations to narrow national interest,

Tagore- poet, novelist, song writer, musician, theorist, educationist, and

finally painter, all rolled into one –personified its cultural ethos, with roots

in an old age heritage but reaching forward to a limitless future.421

According to Parth Mitter, ―He was probably the best-known World

figure in the inter-bellum years; he counted Albert Einstein, Wilfred

Owen, André Gide and Charlie Chaplin among his numerous admirers. He

was among the luminaries that graced the Sapphic painter and hedonist

Natalie Barney‘s legendary salon. His poems inspired Leoˇs Janáˇcek,

Alexander von Zemlinsky and a host of other European composers.‖422

An avowed cosmopolitan, he undertook twelve world tours,

challenging in the process, colonial representations of India as an inferior

subject nation. The enthusiastic reception in the West, not only of his

writings but also of his painting underscores, yet again the emerging

transnational discourse of global modernity. Tagore, who took up painting

late in life, had a powerful impact on Indian Modernism, but he was also

an influential educationist and founder of a holistic experimental

University in Bengal. Rabindranath Tagore, used to call his paintings: sesh

421

Subramanayam, K.G., Tagore, The Poet-Painter and the West, Rabindranath Tagore, Collection of Essays, edt. By Ratan Parimoo, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, 1989, p. 17

422 Mitter Parth, 2007,p. 65

201

boisher priya. Which means,―Last Age Love or An affair in the evening of

life?‖423

There is an anecdote recounted by Pramathanath Bishi,424

a student

at Santinikean, later a writer. He once in Asram Vidyalaya performed a

―jatra‖ with his fellow students. Tagore saw the act and revealed his

intentions of writing a jatra later to Bishi. Bishi responded with these

words- ―You haven‘t left anything for us lesser talents to pursue; please at

least leave Jatra for us‖425

. Tagore seems to have benevolently complied

with his wishes. So, most of these things have already happened and

Tagore‘s occurrence as an artist, at the age of almost seventy came to the

notice of the world. It was in 1924, which fixes the exact age of the poet at

63.

It is well known fact that Tagore started painting in old age. His

earliest works were ‗Doodles or Erasures.‘426

These were found in his

manuscript of poems in the form of groups of unwanted words or whole

line covered with scribbles of pen often resembling some kind of

grotesque image. At that time it was not sure if Tagore was treating his

423

Sarkar Sandip, The Last Affair, Collection of Essay, op cit. P.117

424 Pramatha Nath Bishi (1901-1985) was an Indian author and parliamentarian from West Bengal. He

was a member of the West Bengal Legislative Council.

425 Jatra is a popular traditional performance from Bengal.

426 See Plate No. 54.

202

painting as only child‘s play. But there are evidences to the contrary.

Tagore, in a poem written to Sudhindranath Dutta mentions- ―Words do

not pamper me, her rule is strict; my lines laugh at their will, they do not

restrict me…‖427

In a series of letters written in the 1930‘s we find Tagore conveying

similar feelings. He writes to Indira Devi from Santiniketan- ―I was very

busy. Now holidays have begun. I am thinking of just to sit in a corner and

paint. I don‘t feel like using my pen…‖428

Writes to Pratima Devi-

―Practically these days I am not writing at all. When I get free moments, I

paint…‖429

In Rani Chanda‘s book we find- ―I wish I could do away with all

other things and just paint. I truly feel in my life today an urge, to

paint….‖430

There are many more such references where Tagore expresses his

reservations with words and his feeling of freedom when painting and

choosing painting over writing as an act. This brings into the equation a

427

The poem was published in the collection, Sesh Saptak(1934), pg. 35, Somendranath

Bandopadhay’s book Rabindra-Chitrakala: Rabindra Sahityer Patabhumika quoted in Konar, Rajdeep,

Tagore’s Paintings: A Creation of Genius, Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in

Humanities,(ISSN0975-2935), vol. 2, No 4, 2010, p. 618

42823/09/1938, “Chitihipatra” 5, pg. 37 in Somendranath Bandopadhay’s Book quoted in Ibid. p. 618.

4291930, “Chithipatra”3,p 37 in Somendranath Bandopadhay’s book. Quoted in Ibid.p. 618.

430 3rd September 1934, “Alapchari Rabindranath”,p. 37 in Somendranath Bandopadhay’s book.quoted

in Ibid. p. 618.

203

matter of choice of one language over the other. This makes it clear, that

when Tagore began painting, he felt unable to express his mind freely in

words and was looking forward to painting seriously as an alternative.

This indicates a void which was getting created in his thoughts, a sense of

incompleteness and dissatisfaction with the potentialities of the written

word. It would be interesting to investigate the origin of this void.

In April 1941 just before his death he told Rani Chanda, a close

associate,

―A great part of literature is insubstantial; with some change in the

language it loses its aesthetic power. While, there is nothing of this kind in

nature. Take the may flower, it breaks into blossom today as it did

yesterday, or as it will in the time to come. But language has this problem.

Painting has, in a sense, greater stability. It is here that seeing through the

eyes and seeing through language are different. Artists leave their work

behind and people see them through ages. In my case everything will go

into dust with me. So I sometimes wonder why I wrote so much in my

life; just a few pieces will have done as well.‖

Another time he tells her, ―We who have traded in lyrics should

know that these will not find acceptance at another time. This is

inevitable. So I often think that only painting has a deathless quality.‖431

It

is because of this very idea that Tagore started painting. In February 1939

he says, ―I have some doubts about literary creativity; its value is fixed on

the basis of notions current at a time, through which its original aim is

431

Rani Chandra, ‘Alpchari Rabindranath’ Visva- Bharti, 1971, p. 100. Quoted in Subramanyan, K.G., op cit. P. 18

204

hard to discover....In this turmoil I have found in my days of retirement,

two stable havens of activity, song- writing and painting.‖432

Tagore did all his paintings in the last seventeen years of his life.

Although, he had taken some lesson in drawing in his childhood. He was

influenced by his elder brother Jyotirindranath, a cultivated

draughtsman.433

He was interested in art and used to watch the new art

movement his nephews, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath launched.

In 1913, he visited the Chicago Art Institute, Armory Show with

1600 exhibits, where Rabindranath studied the entire range of modern

artists from the Impressionists to Marcel Duchamp. Tagore was deeply

impressed with Stella Krammrisch‘s lecture in London in 1920 that,

Tagore invited her to Santiniketan in 1922, where she delivered a series of

lectures on World Art from Gothic to Dadaism. Rabindranath attended

these lectures and translated them himself.

In 1921, he also visited Weimer and Bauhaus, in Germany and met

Kollowitz, Modigliani, Johannes Itten. Tagore‘s visits to the British

Museum also exposed him to primitive art, a form that he would encounter

in his travels to Indonesia, China and America. It was during his trip to

Japan in 1916 that we witness Tagore‘s desire to evolve an art that could

432

Letter to Amiya Chakravarti dated 14th

February, 1934.Quoted in Subramanyan, K.G., opcit. P. 18

433 Subramanyan, K.G., opcit. P. 18

205

syncretise these various strains and would not merely fall back upon

tradition, but would boldly enlarge it.

During his visit to Japan in 1916 he wrote a series of letters to

Abanindranath and Gaganendranath which carried both words of criticism

and advice. After pointing out the salient features of contemporary

Japanese painting,434

its impressive scale, simplicity in image and colour

and its effort to state whatever it wanted with directness and precision he

says in a letter to Abanindranath, ―After coming here I realise that your art

has not found itself completely, sixteen annas to the rupee. Our rainbow–

coloured painting should have, I feel, a little more power, courage and

breadth.‖435

Tagore began painting at a time when he was seeing around him in

Santiniketan painters like Nandalal Bose, Ramkinker Baij and

Benondbihari Mukherjee. His own brothers Abanindranath and

Gaganendranath were eminent painters. He could not have been unaware

of paintings by Jamini Roy.

However, to the surprise of the critics his paintings showed no

influence whatsoever neither technical, nor stylistic nor thematic, of any

of his contemporaries. This was because Tagore rejected the narrow focus

434

Subramanyam, K.G., opcit. P. 19

435Subramanyan K. G. op.cit,. p. 19

206

of cultural authenticity as supported by the Bengal school. He believed in

the concept of cultural borrowing and favoured global culture.

Around 1920, there was a sudden change in Tagore idea of

nationalism. In the first decade of the twentieth century we find Tagore

very closely associated with the political movements in Bengal against the

British colonial regime. In 1905, the Bengal partition movement happens

and perhaps we see Tagore at his political best- writing songs, arranging

‗sobha-jatras‘, voicing his protests against this tyrannical act of the

colonial British government. We find him intoxicated in the hope of a

possible rebellion against the colonial British Government.

However in the second decade of the 20th century we find him in a

process of gradual disenchantment from the frenzy of the Nationalist

Movement. He got the Nobel Prize in 1913 and when he finds the very

same public who had criticized him earlier making an overnight shift to

voice his admiration, he finds it distasteful. He saw the nationalist struggle

being turned into a farce by providing the subject for leisurely evening

socializing along with the Darjeeling Tea and Scotch whisky in homes of

Bengali aristocrat ‗babus.‘

He was concerned with the growing rift between the Hindu and

Muslim communities at a time when there unity was most desirable. In the

mean-while he makes repeated trips to Europe, America and Souh East

207

Asia. He is confronted with the aggressive nationalist politics of

nations.436

In 1914, the First World War is declared. All of this culminates to

create a crisis in his stream of thoughts. As it seems evident in his

correspondences with Gandhi he feels disillusioned with the nationalist

movement by encountering the evils of Nationalist politics, the very seeds

of which as he declares in his famous essay on nationalism are infested in

the essentially western concept of development through competition. He

comprehends that by its own nature a competitive paradigm creates

oppositions, which extend to become enemies. Thus the concept of

competitive development by its very nature breeds violence.

Thus Tagore became skeptical of surrender to a mass ideology. As

opposed to this he began thinking if there can be a process of development

for a human being not by competing with his fellow human beings but

through a process a self enlightenment, self development. He was

proposing a development which is not generated or controlled by external

influences but comes from within the being. This was a point of rupture in

Tagore‘s thoughts. A consequence of this rupture was that Tagore‘s

thoughts began to get more concerned with what he thought as the internal

part of the self than with the external part of it.

436

Rabindranath Tagore’s essay Titled “Nationalism” Penguin Book, India, 2009.

208

Tagore called for universal brotherhood. Painting for Tagore was

the universal language through which he can communicate universally.

We find him saying in his letters that his literary activities are so much

steeped in cultural specificities that it can never communicate to an

audience foreign to them and thus painting, he thought can be the only

medium which could provide him with a license to do so. He writes: ―In

pictures, or in plastic art, the material consists of the representation of

things which are in a way familiar to most people and can easily be

apprehended by everyone … This is why it is much more difficult for a

foreigner to understand foreign music than to appreciate foreign art.‖437

Painting for Tagore, becames the language through which he looks

to communicate universally. A very prominent trait of Tagore‘s paintings

is that, they try to do away with all kinds of immediate particularities:

technical or thematic. He refuted traditional techniques 438

and refused to

entertain an immediate sense of socially or culturally informed reality.

Tagore‘s paintings are mostly figural in nature. The figures are meant to

be almost archetypal and universal.439

437

Bandopadhay Somendranath, Written in Villeneuve, 24 June 1926, ‘Sangitchinta”.p. 68

438 Konar Rajdeep, op. cit.p. 623.

439 Ibid. p.623.

209

There is an attempt at reaching out towards an art which is universal

in nature in terms of it being comprehended irrelevant of the boundaries of

language, culture and nations.

A very interesting incident that would second such a proposition is

an interview of Tagore with Russian critics happened in the occasion of

Tagore‘s paintings being exhibited in Tretiyakov gallery440

. When asked

whether Tagore would like to name his paintings, Tagore replied in the

negative.

Now, when we have realized that Tagore tried to impart his act of

painting with a political significance we must also try to comprehend that

the significance of his politics of universalism does not lie in its universal

nature but in its being a response to a particular historical contingency. It

was a time when it was necessary for the inhabitants of this world to

understand things in a bigger context coming out of their narrowed

loyalties, to foresee the destruction of the human race in such impulses. It

was a time to realize oneself as a member of the human race, and

comprehend one‘s responsibility towards its existence.

It is a well known fact that Tagore refuted many old traditions of

his day. He rebelled against the prevailing colonial education system

setting up is own school at Santiniketan Bramha-vidyalaya, and when

440

Ibid. p. 623.

210

even could not prevent that from falling into a trap of clichés he founded

another one at Sriniketan.441

He abandoned the contemporary urban colonial theater tradition to

set up a completely new kind of theatre in Santiniketan.442

He introduced

women into dancing in his theatre when dancing for women was

considered an obscene act, a subject of strict prohibition for the Bengali

women belonging to respected families.

When he saw the national freedom movement being appropriated

by the opportunists who were strangling it, he criticized it and distanced

himself from what seemed to him a meaningless activity. Tagore thus had

innate in him a revolutionary nature, a natural urge to refute all kinds

clichés and what he understood as not right and in this light painting was

an ultimate act of rebellion, against the self.

The urge to break down, to deconstruct what was unacceptable in

his artistic tradition. This monumental task that Tagore imparts upon

himself and throws himself with gusto towards its realization at the age of

seventy speaks volumes about the revolutionary spirit in his mind.

It was during his trip to Japan in 1916, that we witness Tagore‘s

desire to evolve an art that could syncretise these various strains and

441

Sen Amrit, “Beyond Borders”:Rabindranath Tagore’s Paintings and Visva- Bharati, Rupkhata Journal, vol.2 No.1, p. 34

442 Ibid. p. 34

211

would not merely fall back upon tradition, but would boldly enlarge it.

Tagore‘s movement away from the nationalism in aesthetics can be

located in his essay Art and Tradition (1926): When in the name of Indian

art we cultivate with deliberate aggressiveness a certain bigotry born of

the habit of a past generation, we smother our soul under idiosyncrasies

that fail to respond to the ever changing play of life.443

Rather art was seen

as a sphere where disparate influences could come together to create a

world without borders.

Thus in Art and Tradition, Tagore added: There was a time when

human races lived in comparative segregation and therefore the art

adventures had their experience within a narrow range of limit … But

today that range has vastly widened, claiming from us a much greater

power of receptivity than what were compelled to cultivate in former

ages.444

Tagore‘s own paintings reflect the cosmopolitan approach to art as

he freely moved between the various influences to develop a style of his

own. He was aware of the different route that he was charting, in his letter

to Rothenstein in 1937: I have been playing havoc in the complacent and

stagnant world of Indian art and my people are puzzled for they do not

443

Tagore Rabindranath, Art and Tradition, Collection of essay, op cit. P. 11.

444 Ibid. p. 10.

212

know what judgement to pronounce upon my pictures. But I must say I am

hugely enjoying my role as a painter.445

According to Tagore, ―While, painting the process adopted by me is

quite the reverse. First there is a hint of line and then the line becomes the

form‖.446

It was not until 1924, at the age of 63, that Rabindranath Tagore

began painting. His artistic practice was an outgrowth of his habits as a

writer and poet; revision marks and scratched-out words on his

manuscripts blossomed into free-form sketches and scenes. Tagore‘s

cross-cultural encounters during his many trips abroad influenced his

visual art—tribal artifacts of the Pacific, Javanese music and dance,447

ancient bronzes from China, arts and crafts of Japan and European

modernism are all evident. By incorporating these various motifs and

styles, he created images—rhythmically articulate pictorial forms—he felt

were universal. Indeed, his enigmatic paintings and drawings remain

arresting and compelling today. Of the composition of more than 2,000

works, many pieces feature faces with forlorn expressions rendered in

445

“Rabindranath Tagore to William Rothenstein”, Letter no 195, in Imperfect Encounters: Letters of William Rothenstein and Rabindranath Tagore 1911-1941, ed. Mary M. Lago (Harvard: Harvard University press, 1972), p. 75.

446 “Rabindranth Tagore to Rani Mahalanobis”, November 1928, trans. Khitish Roy, Rabindranath

Tagore, On Art and Aesthetics, A Selection of Lectures, Essay and Letters, Oriental Longmams, Calcutta, 1961.

447 See Plate No. 55

213

dark, foreboding colors. Others express a reverence for nature and for the

rhythm of the natural world. Tagore‘s friend Victoria Ocampo, an

Argentinian socialite and writer, saw his first doodles and drawings and

encouraged him to pursue art. With Ocampo‘s help, Tagore mounted the

first exhibition of his artwork at the Galerie Pigalle in Paris in May 1930.

The show traveled to Europe, Russia, and the United States, earning

him critical acclaim in the West, where Expressionists and Surrealists

were celebrating the subconscious and exploring raw sensations as a

means of breaking from academicism and stylistic conventions. Despite

favorable responses to his artwork abroad, he was hesitant to exhibit his

works in India and did not do so until 1932 when he held a major show at

the Government School of Art in Kolkata. He continued to paint until his

death at the age of 80 in 1941.

Europe and USA recognised the strength and style of Tagore‘s

painting and welcomed them with immense praise. Tagore,

understandably, was exhilarated as this warm reception provided him with

the confidence he was looking for. He wrote to his son Rathindranath on

31.10.1930 saying, ―From my experience of my painting exhibitions in

Europe, I realise, I can rely on my ability on painting.‖448

He also wrote to

Pratimadevi his daughter–in–law in 1930 saying, ―My paintings command

448

Sen Gupta Indrani, Reflection On Paintings Of Rabindranath Tagore, www.easternpanorama.in/.../1136-reflection-on-paintings-of-rabindranat

214

decent prices and it will increase in the coming years.‖449

He felt

immensely pleased when the Berlin National Gallery, procured five of his

paintings.

The drawings of Rabindranath Tagore proved that the poet, though

a master in the use of words, felt that certain things can be better

expressed, or perhaps only expressed in the language of line, tone and

colour.

3:4:3 Jamani Roy (1887-1972): He was, born in 1887 in a village in the

Bankura district of West Bengal, which has a rich tradition of terracotta

and folk art.450

The social and cultural milieu of which he was the part and

the early years of his life contributed in a small measure to his later

development. Watching the village craftsmen he got interested in

paintings. According to Bisnu Dey, ―this isolated, idyllic backdrop

contributed in Roy‘s search of the life in art and the dream of attaining self

completeness in the social life. This is the memory that did not let him

forget the flakily constructed bourgeois space of Calcutta, and its

fascination with morbid western naturalism in art, although it reached an

indisputable height of success in his hand.‖451

449

Ibid.

450 .A.K. Dutta, Jamini Roy, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, 1973, p. 3.

451 Dey Bishnu, “Jamani Roy”, in Dhruba Kumar Mukhopadhyay, ed. Bishnu Dey Prabandha Sangraha,

vol. I, Calcutta, 1997, p. 117.

215

Jamini Roy, has been called the ‗father of the folk renaissance in

India,‘ who created an alternative vision of modern Indian identity.452

As a

child, Roy‘s first encounter with the Santals at Bankura left a permanent

impression in his art. He received his formal training at the Government

Art College in the then Calcutta, where he got rigorous training in the

European mode of art. The school at that time was in moribund state.

Jamini Roy became dissatisfied with the limitation of expression that this

mode presupposes. His search for alternative artistic forms began. Roy‘s

reputation as one of the best portrait painters and his brief but fascinating

post-impressionist period did not thwart this search.

According to Ella Datta, from 1919 to 1920, he was quite

well established as a portrait artist. It was in 1919, he says in an interview

to Bishnu Dey that he began to get restless and dissatisfied with what he

was doing with his portrait work in the European Naturalist Style.453

He was called to the school run by the Oriental Society of Art. Here

also, he was quite discontent: ―The reason why I want to discard European

painting is not because I wish to be ―Swadeshi‖ or Indian but because

even the best European artists including Raphael drew forms like Mary

452

Mukhopadhaya, A, In Jamani Roy, Seminar Paper in the Context of Indian Folk Sensibility and His Impact on Indian Art, New Delhi, 1992.

453 An interview conducted with Ella Datta in August 2013, during the exhibition curated by her

entitled “Jamini Roy: Journey to the Roots” commemorating his 125th birth anniversary at NGMA,

Delhi’

216

carrying infant Jesus standing among clouds in the sky, but with the use of

light and shade made to appear like a full human being-- how is this

possible?‖454

According to Ratnabali, here Jamani Roy, was discarding the

basis on which classical European pictorial form, had developed its

potentials of creating an illusion of nature.455

Therefore he discarded the European naturalist art tradition. In spite

of his close relation with Abanindranath, he criticised the art of the Bengal

School. Roy was critical of the soft lines and paleness of this school,

which was to be considered as ―Indian art.‖456

Therefore the Bengal school

style failed to evoke any genuine interest in him so the only way left open

was to evolve something in his own way. He found support of his personal

views in the paintings of Rabindranath Tagore: While observing the man

painted by Rabindranath, I do not feel that it will drop for a moment, or

swing with the wind. I clearly see that the man has weight and a strong

backbone. That Rabindranath‘s painting is powerful because of this

power of the bone, and for his ability to create rhythm. I think

Rabindranath wants to protest against the lack that had been increasing in

the paintings of our country for the past two-hundred years, since the

454

Interview with Bishnu Dey, Quoted in Chatterjee, Ratnabali, ‘The Original Jamini Roy’ A Study in Consumerism of Art, p. 7

455 Ibid. p.7-8

456 Chatterjee, Ratnabali,‘The Original Jamini Roy’ A study in the Consumerism of Art, Social Scientist,

1987, p. 6

217

Rajput dynasty to the present…his protest is against everything including

the entire tradition of the sophisticated Indian art, and the orientalist art.457

In 1923, while reading Rabindranath‘s essay ―Tapoban‖, that

advocated the restitution of India‘s rural heritage and critiqued the naive

imitation of Western civilization, Roy had a realization: ―Today I have

read what was there in my mind. Just before eight months I realised

this.‖458

Thus his personal search of artistic form gets related to the

dialogic discourses of colonialism and those that countered it. At this point

of time his familiarity with Sunayani Devi‘s paintings and with Kalighat

pata reshaped his artistic perception. The influence of Kalighat pata was

soon to be discarded by him, since he found that the Kalighat artists were

alienated from their traditional rural ideal, as they had moved to Calcutta

to serve an urban population. Roy turned back to the villages of Bengal in

search of the ―traditional‖ pata paintings. The terracotta-reliefs of his

native village, introduced in his works, the simplified, thick outlines,

providing his art with such a verve that was unseen at that time. Roy tried

to incorporate the immensely expressive power of the village artisans by

emphasizing the ―lines at the expense of colours, using black outlines

457

Dey, “Srijukto Jamini Rayer Rabindrakatha”, in Mukhopadhyay, Vol. 2 (Kolkata: Dey’s, 1998),p. 107,

Quoted in Malyadas Deb, Jamini Roy’s Art: Modernity, Politics and Reception, Chitrolekha

International Magazine on Art and Design, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2011, p. 113

458 Dey, “Srijukto Jamini Rayer Rabindrakatha”, in Mukhopadhyay, Vol. 2 (Kolkata: Dey’s, 1998),p. 107,

Quoted in Malyadas Deb, Jamini Roy’s Art: Modernity, Politics and Reception, Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2011, p. 113

218

painted with a brush on white paper. He forsook oils for tempera and

concentrated on primary colours.‖459

However, Roy rejected Kalighat artists for having lost the rural

idea, when they moved to Calcutta to serve an urban population. In the

mid-1920s, he embarked on his epic journey to the Bengal countryside to

collect folk paintings (pats) and to learn from the folk painters. He was

convinced that the ‗revival of Bengali art will not come from Ajanta,

Rajput and Mughal art . . . [for] one may learn a language that is not one‘s

own but one cannot enter its inner thoughts‘460

In 1929, Roy showed his

first experiments with folk art at an exhibition organized by Alfred Henry

Watson, the English editor of the Statesman newspaper.461

His next

exhibition, held at the Indian Society of Oriental Art on 9th July 1930,

marked his transition from a half-hearted orientalist to a robust primitivist.

Roy‘s bold simplifications and thick outlines applied with sweeping

brushstrokes exuded a crude vigour hitherto unknown in Indian art, his

dull yellow and slate green figures and brick-red backgrounds emulating

the terracotta reliefs of his home village in Bankura. Roy‘s objective was

459

Partha Mitter, “Jamini Roy and Art for the Community”, in The Triumph of Modernism: India’s

Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-1947 (London: Reaktion Books, 2007), p. 106.

460 Ibid. p. 104.

461 Mitter Parth, op. cit. p. 104.

219

not to imitate the village artisans but to learn from the expressive power of

their line.

This yearning for formalistic simplicity also took him to the wooden

puppets of Bankura and later to child-art. He was a collector of paintings

made by children and took great interest in them: ―not because of my

affection for them, but because they are vitally important for me.‖462

Jamini Roy tried to transcreate the folk idiom to communicate in a

symbolic, yet recognizable language that possessed universal validity. The

technical virtuosity of his academic training combined with his newly

acquired simplistic formalism enhanced the volume, the rhythm, the

decorative clarity and monumentality in his work.463

Even his mode of artistic production also transformed significantly.

Abandoning the medium of oil, he started to use the seven basic colours

made from organic matters such as rockdust, tamarind seeds, mercury

powder, lamp black etc., and painted with them on his canvas of home-

made fabric. The enormous unreality of the metropolitan Calcutta, laden

with hypocrisy and a non-spiritualistic world-view (finding its apt

expression through the Western naturalistic convention of art) could be

easily juxtaposed by him against the down-to-earth honesty of the folk

462

Quoted in Mitter Parth, op. cit. p. 112.

463 Mitter Parth, op. cit. p. 113.

220

artist. This honesty, according to Jamini Roy, was the most essential thing

for a painter‘s artistic integrity. Parth Mitter, holds that Roy‘s idea of

transforming the homely sphere of North Calcutta into a permanent

exhibition was no less than a ―political manifesto.‖464

The exhibition space was converted into a traditional Bengali

environment. Shanta Devi, who saw the exhibition held: The artist gives

evidence of consummate stage management, embellishing three rooms

with his paintings emulating village pats…Actual village pats are on

display in an adjacent room…little lamps are lit and incense burnt. Floors

are covered in traditional Bengali alpona patterns. In this room decorated

in a Bengali style indigenous seats take the place of chairs, which are of

European origin.465

In an extreme phase of nationalism in India, that was essentialist by

its nature, Roy‘s persistent emphasis on the local was, according to Parth

Mitter, a well-thought ideological move to counter the onslaught of

colonialist capitalism.

Thus caught between the cross purposes of different styles he

intuitively turned to the vital and still living folk tradition, which he knew

intimately from childhood. In it he found a forward solution. His return to

464

Mitter,Parth. Op. cit. p. 105

465 Mitter,Parth. Op. cit. p. 105-106.

221

the village and anonymous folk art indeed provided an ideal answer to his

inner quest. In the word of Stella Kramrisch, ‗it proved to be a conscious

and productive home going.‘ This turning point in the life of Jamini Roy

was of great importance particularly because of artistic development and

ultimate contribution to the art movement as a whole.466

Jamini Roy started his carrier when, according to Ratnabali

Chatterjee, the middle class intelligentsia was oscillating between two

extremes: ―a colonial hangover and a feeling of nationalism bordering on

chauvinism.‖467

The works of Roy provided three possible way-outs to

this intellectual status. The incorporation of folk tradition revived the lost

cultural bond that somehow worked as an antidote to the prevalent

colonial hangover. The bold lines of Roy‘s paintings were compared with

the contemporary European artists like Leger, resulting in the expansion of

outlook of Indian art in the realm of the International during the late

1930s.Thirdly, for the young artists Roy‘s art offered a ―rescue route from

the stylish conventions of the Bengal School, which acted as a constraint

on the depiction of contemporary events-- the war and the famine.‖

Further, ―Jamini Roy offered after a long time a backbone of drawing and

an anatomical framework to Indian art.‖468

466

Datta A.K. op. cit. p. 7.

467 Chatterjee, Ratnabali.Op. cit.p. 5.

468 Chatterjee, Ratnabali, op. cit. p. 6

222

This yearning and denial of the European styles was perhaps the

turning point in Jamini Roy‘s career as well as a key moment in Indian

Modern Art. Seeking a visual vocabulary of his own, Jamini Roy moved

away from traditional academic art and turned towards his roots. Initially

he drew a lot of inspiration from Kalighat Pat paintings as well as

terracotta work on temple walls of Bengal especially Bishnupur temple.

He also showed his fascination for the paintings of peasant painters of

Bengal who used to sell their work at the rural bazaars.

From this, evolved the Jamini Roy the world knows so well. The

lines became bolder and simpler, the colours rich and the images lyrical.

Over time, Roy moved away from canvas and started using different types

of fabric, cloth, wood, mats, etc. As well as colours and pigments made

from vegetables. The art of Jamini Roy was a milestone in contemporary

Indian Art. Not only did it break away from the notion that art was the

sole preserve of the upper classes and had to necessarily follow European

styles but it also brought to fore the folk art language.469

Introduction of

bold yet simple and minimal use of lines also brought in the new wave of

reducing images to the bare essentials and yet tell the story emphatically.

By the 1930s, he had become an iconic figure, the only non-

orientalist to be recognised by the Indian Society of Oriental Art. The

469

See Plate No. 56

223

arch-orientalist Mukul Dey, on his appointment as the first Indian

Principal of the Calcutta Government Art School in 1928, drove the

academic artists out of the institution. But Dey admired Roy and provided

the struggling artist with painting materials and a spacious room in the

school. He also arranged Roy‘s first major exhibition at the art school in

1929. At the end of the show, as Roy was squatting on the floor with paper

and paint, Dey came in and showered him with the banknotes received for

his works.470

Even though Nandalal had his differences with Roy, he

respected him, commissioning him to decorate the venue of the Lucknow

Congress Session in 1936. His blown up versions of pats were displayed at

the Lucknow Congress with Nandalal‘s panels.

He painted ordinary men and women from the village, reinventing

popular images from the patua’s repertoire. Jamini Roy restricted his

palette to seven colours- Indian red, yellow ochre, cadmium green,

vermillion, grey, blue and white. These were mostly earthy or mineral

colours.471

Women especially were painted in very graceful postures.472

Among Roy‘s admirers some were eminent Marxists and

intellectuals of Bengal like Bishnu Dey, Sudhindranath Dutta respectively,

who were also the leading avant-garde poets writing in Bengali. Roy‘s

470

Mitter Parth, op. cit. p. 110.

471 See Plate No. 57.

472 See Plate No. 58.

224

championing of the popular art (which had a social basic, as it was created

in a mode of communitarian participation, thereby subverting the capitalist

notion of the lone genius), was hailed by this group of intellectuals. A

debate was generated by this group regarding the role of folk art and that

of the artist in the modern class-society, in which Jamini Roy was posed

as a model in the centre. In his essay ―Lokashilpa O Babusamaj‖ Bishnu

Dey observes: We, the unfortunate inheritors of chaos and exploitation of

a number of centuries can still save ourselves by participating in the

reawakening of our indigenous mass. The folk culture will get a new life

in the mass culture.473

In another essay Dey observes that Jamini Roy has not only

emancipated our art, but he also has modified the urban way of seeing by

making us perceive through the eyes of the marginal people.474

Discarding

the immense subversive potential in the works of the folk artisans, Dey

admiringly appropriates the way in which Jamini Roy artistically

manoeuvres rural art into the urban middle-class Marxist thought: He is an

extremely capable selector: a conscientious artist. His taste has not for a

moment abandoned his brush. On the other hand, the folk artists are

473

Dey Bishnu, “Lokshilp O Babusamaj” in Mukhopadhyay, vol. I, p. 227.

474 Dey Bishnu, “Jamini Roy” p. 122.

225

craftsmen by habit. Devoid of conscience, it is natural for them not to

possess the degree of good taste that Roy has.475

It is important to note that Dey prefers the conditioned form of art,

rather than the raw. This disregard for the art of the mass indicates the

intellectual elitism, in which the Marxist thinking of this phase of Bengali

politics was restricted. Jamini Roy‘s art not only provided them with a

model to follow, but it also participated tacitly in the politics of

―modernization‖ and ―reality‖ to be expressed in art. The aristocratic /

exclusivist bourgeois art that the Marxists perceived as ―unreal‖ was thus

substituted by the art of Jamini Roy with all its peripheral associations, yet

tampered by a sophisticated artistry. Robin Mondal holds that the support

of these intellectuals was influential in giving Roy the acceptability to the

wider section of art lovers. Foreigners like John Irwin, Mary Milford,

Maie Casey came to visit Roy primarily as the friends of these

intellectuals and from 1940s, Roy‘s international reputation began to

grow. In 1945, Roy‘s first exhibition in foreign was held at the Arcade

Gallery in London, which was inaugurated by the novelist E. M. Forster.

An attempt was made by these foreigners to appropriate Jamini Roy‘s

obsession with pure form into the prevalent discourse of modernism. Mary

475

Dey Bishnu, “Jamini Roy” p. 119.

226

Milford‘s essay ―A Modern Primitive‖ in the influential literary magazine

Horizon introduced him to the modernist intellectual milieu in London.476

3:4:4 Amrita Sher Gil (1913-1941): Daughter of Umrao Singh Shergil, a

sikh aristocrat and scholar, and Marie Antoinett a Hungarian, Amrit

Shergil was born in Budapest in 1913. She spent her early childhood in

Hungary and then came to India. Her mother took her to Italy and Paris,

the prominent centre of artistic activity and the birthplace of many a

historic art movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Amrita had the good fortune of studying at the best art school at

Paris, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, under the competent guidance of great

masters. Besides, living in Paris, she had the added advantage of visiting

art galleries, museums, salons, etc. She studied the works of contemporary

and ancient master painters in the original.

Amrita's work done during her stay in Europe till 1934 was largely

academic, consisting of still-life, nude studies, portraits and like. Her

artistic abilities got new turn and bloomed only after she returned to India.

She came here not as a foreigner attracted by the 'picturesque' India, and

the exotic sights and smells; she came here as an Indian in feeling and

spirit and with a mind to make this land her home. Despite her training in

476

Jamini Roy’s Art: Modernity, Politics and Reception, op. cit. p.

227

Western Art, she had complete awareness and deep respect for India's

artistic traditions.477

When she set foot on Indian soil for the first time in November

1934, she was haunted by the faces of the unhappy and dejected, poor and

starving Indians whom she saw first around Simla, then in the South and

finally in Punjab, where she spent the last days of her life. After settling

down in Simla in early 1935, she took an important decision of

interpreting "the life of Indians, particularly the poor, pictorially." She

wrote, ―I am an individualist, evolving a new technique, which though not

necessarily Indian in the traditional sense of the word, will yet be

fundamentally Indian in spirit. With the eternal significance of form and

colour I interpret India and, principally, the life of the Indian poor on the

plane that transcends the plane of mear sentimental interest."478

These

words suggest that she had a clear idea of what she was to accomplish in

the near future.

Before coming to India, she was already a public figure in Europe.

She was influenced by the art of the Post Impressionists, Cezanne and

Gauguin.479

After returning to India in 1934, her first work was for Simla

Fine Art Society.Followed by exhibitions in various cities of India. Amrita

477

www.sikh-heritage.co.uk/arts/amritashergil/amritashergill.html

478 Amrita Sher-Gil, ‘Evolution of my Art’, 1972, p. 139.

479 Dalmia Yashodara, Amrita Sher-Gil, A Life, Penguin Books, India, 2006, p. 192.

228

Shergil was interested in the art of her time but found it largely

uninspiring. She travelled to the ancient art sites in India- Ajanta, Ellora

and to the far south and studied the murals and sculpture.

After her tour she began working in Simla and produced some

remarkable works during this period. Amrita Shergil was very confident of

her work, which is apparent in the letter she wrote to her mother from

Paris in 1932 ―To my greatest astonishment and to everybody‘s surprise, I

did not win the prize, which this year was awarded ‗to the most

modern‘...... But I am not at all depressed because I know, that I have

produced excellent piece.‖480

While still a student in Paris, she wrote in a

letter how she began to be haunted by an intense longing to return to India,

feeling in some strange way that there lay my destiny as a painter.481

She

returned to India in 1934.

Like Tagore, Amrita Shergil felt that India was ―Where the tiller is

tilling the hard ground and where the path maker is breaking stones. He is

with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust, she

was deeply moved by the misery around her and discovered for herself

that India was in village.482

480

Sundram Vivan, Amrita Sher- Gil, A Self Potrait in letters and writings. Tulika Books, 2010, p. 79.

481 Amrita Sher- Gil, “Evolution of My Art;” Usha, Amrita Sher- Gil. special issue, Lahor, 1942, p. 99.

482 Dhingra, Baldoon, Amrita Sher- Gil, Lalit Kala , New Delhi, p. iii.

229

Amrita Shergil was greatly impressed and inspired by the traditional

schools of Indian paintings, such as Ajanta, Rajput and Mughal

miniatures. She however developed her own style, which though not

necessarily Indian in the traditional sense of words, was fundamentally

Indian in spirit. She once said, I would like to see the art of India . . .

produce something vital connected with the soil, yet essentially Indian.483

It is this rejection of historicism for an art connected with the soil that

forms the corner stone of her ‗artistic authenticity‘. She discovered village

India after shuttling between India and Hungary in the early years of her

life.484

As soon as she set foot on the Indian soil, her painting underwent a

great change in theme, spirit and technical expression, becoming more

fundamentally Indian. She then realized that her real artistic mission in life

was to interpret the lives of poor Indians pictorially; to paint ‗those silent

images of infinite submission and patience, to depict their angular brown

bodies, strangely beautiful in their ugliness; to reproduce on canvas the

impression their eyes created on me‘.485

Art must be connected with the

soil, she once told the artist Barada Ukil, if it was to be vital.486

483

Amrita Sher- Gil, Trends of Art in India, in Vivan Sundaram Amrita Sher-Gil, p. 142.

484 Archer, India and Modern Art, op cit pp 80- 99.

485 Amrita Sher- Gil, Evolution of My Art; Usha, Amrita Sher- Gil special issue, p. 96.

486 Ukil, quoted in Iqubal Singh, Amrita Sher- Gil, p. 45.

230

According to Vivan Sundram, ―In her first year in India....during the

months of high- living, she produced sentimental and romanticised version

of Indian poverty in paintings like Mother India, The Beggars, and

Woman with Sunflower.....For her the poverty of India was beautiful and

the people who barely survived inhuman and primitive conditions, merely

exciting images.....One day, she nonchalantly told a friend that if there

were no poor and destitute people in India, she would have nothing to

paint.487

In 1936, the journalist Ela Sen explained that Sher-Gil‘s life‘s

ambition was to present the misery of Indian life to a wider audience and

to elevate it to a higher plane through the medium of colour, form and

design.488

The Bengali monthly Prabasi paid her a rare tribute in 1939:

though her style was foreign, her authentic image of a poor, melancholy,

rural India struck a chord in Indians.489

Maie Casey was all praise for

Amrita Shergil, according to her, ‗An Indian with a measure of European

blood, she returned to India to shed her acquired skill...... She saw her

country with vision and has left a legacy of pictures, simple and

grand......as a tribute to Indian Countryside and its people.490

487

Sundram, Vivan, Marg, pp.15-16.

488 Ella Sen, Prominent Women in India, Quoted in Iqubal Singh, Amrita Sher Gil, pp. 55-56.

489 Prabasi, Quoted in Parth Mitter, 2007, p. 55.

490 Casey, M. Quoted in Parth Mitter, op. cit. 2007, p. 45.

231

Amrita Shergil learnt about Indian art not directly but through

European distortations. In September 1934 she wrote ―Modern art has led

me to the comprehension and appreciation of Indian painting and

sculpture. It seems paradoxical but I know for certain that had we not

come away to Europe, I should have perhaps never realised that a fresco

from Ajanta or a small piece of sculpture in the Musee Guimet is worth

more than the whole Renaissance.491

Amrita Shergil was the first and the most famous artist of the

century. Prior to her only two female opted this profession, one was

Mangala Bai, sister of Raja Ravi Varma and another was Sunena Devi.

But it was Amrita Shergil who provided a role model for women artists‘ of

future generation. She was the first professional woman artist in India

whose life and career were very different from many other women artists‘

of the twentieth century.492

Amrita Shergil exhibited her first work done in India at Simla Fine

Art Society‘s exhibition in 1935, where she was awarded a prize for one

of her painting, but the society turned down some of her works, she

declined the prize and gave in writing to the society that the prize should

491

Amrita Sher- Gil letter dated September 1934, to her parents. Quoted in Vivan Sundram’s Amrita Sher –Gil.

492 Mitter, Parth, 2007, op. cit. p. 51.

232

go to someone who was more in tune with the hidebound conventionality

fostered by the society.

I would be glad to waive it(the prize), in favour of some other more

deserving artist, who, I have no doubt would feel greatly honoured to

receive such a distinction and whose work would correspond more than

mine, dose to the traditional conventionality so carefully preserved for the

last sixty three years by the judges of the Simla Fine Arts

Exhibition…And since my work, I am referring to the five pictures that

were rejected and which incidentally were incomparably superior in every

way to the five that were accepted- does not come up to the standard of the

Simla Fine Arts Society,I shall in future be obliged to resign myself to

exhibiting them merely at the Grand Salon Paris, of which I happen to be

an Associate, and the Salon des Tuileries known all over the world as the

representative exhibition of Modern Art and to which I have been invited

to participate in the past a distinction, I add, that few can boast of, and all

the other exhibitions representative of contemporary art in Europe, where I

have exhibited and shall exhibit in future, and where I can, at least, be sure

of receiving some measure of impartiality, whatever my work may

merit.‖493

493

Amrita Sher- Gil’s letter dated 21st

September 1935 to Simla Art Society. Quoted in Vivan Sundram’s Amrita Sher –Gil.

233

Baldoon Dhingra is of the opinion that Amrita Shergil declined the

prize because India during thirties was dominated by the Bengal School of

painting, a school she thought, highly lyrical and effeminate. Outside

influences were few and European painting was almost unknown.

Amrita‘s work which was a rediscovery of classical values was

vigorous and challenging, therefore ignored, whereas the works of other‘s

were lauded. As she was deeply conscious of ‗ her mission‘, she felt she

had to decline a prize offered to her by Simla Art Society so as not to

identify herself with the prevailing trends feeding exclusively on

mythology and romance.

In November 1936, Amrita arrived in Bombay which was the first

stop on important tour to the south. Here she met Karl Khandalavala, who

was the first person to attempt to understand her work and who was later

to become a great champion of it. Amrita discovered the richness and

variety of the Rajput and Basohli miniature painters. She was dazzled and

delighted! A seed had been sown. At the present moment she could not

use such pure brilliant colours and some other discovery was needed, for

her palette still consisted of the cool stone colours we find in paintings like

Hill Men. ―I have for the first time since my return to India learnt

something from somebody else's work‖.494

Then come Ajanta and Ellora!

494

Amrita Sher –Gil in a letter dated 5th

December 1936 from Hyderabad, mentioned in Vivan Sundram, Re-take of Amrita, Tulika books, New Delhi, 2001.

234

She exclaimed ―Revelations. Ellora magnificent, Ajanta, curiously subtle

and fascinating‖.495

In South India she went to Cochin, Trivandrum, Cape Comorin and

Madurai. She visited temples both for sculpture and to see active

manifestations of religion also discovering frescoes in obscure places

(Mattancheri) and seeing the 'subtle and forceful' Kathakali dance drama.

The sight of the semi-naked black bodies of the south Indians draped

predominantly in white against a background of rich emerald green

vegetation made a strong visual impact on her. She was so eager to paint

this impression in terms of the form she had been so excited about in

Ajanta that while at Cape Comorin she executed

the 'Fruit Vendors.496

However it was not until her return to Simla that she painted what

has often been called her South Indian Trilogy: The Bride's Toilet497

, The

Brahmacharis498

and South Indian Villagers going to Market.499

She later

described The Brahmacharis as the most difficult thing she had ever done;

but she seems to have derived a sense of satisfaction from it, for she asks

495

Amrita Sher –Gil in a letter dated 23rd

December 1936 to Karl Khandalavala from Hyderabad,

mentioned in Vivan Sundram, Re-take of Amrita, Tulika books, New Delhi, 2001.

496 See plate No.59

497 See plate no.60

498 See plate No. 61.

499 See plate No. 62.

235

in a letter- 'don't you think I have learnt something from Indian

painting?'500

That she was not concerned with representing specific types

of Indians is demonstrated in that she was content to use Pahari and even

Sikh models for the Trilogy. In her paintings, entitled Hill Men and Hill

Women, there is nothing, which particularises a definite ethnic type. She

was concerned with developing a certain personal facial type with whose

expression she identified her own feelings. In the large-eyed, dark and

angular faces with their pouting lips (which can be seen in much of her

work until 1937) there is even a vague reminder of the way she herself

used to make up.

By now the transformation in her work was complete and she had

found her 'artistic mission' which, according to her was, to express the life

of Indian people through her canvas.501

While in Saraya Sher-Gil wrote to

a friend thus: ―I can only paint in India. Europe belongs to Picasso,

Matisse, and Braque.... India belongs only to me‖.502

Her stay in India

marks the beginning of a new phase in her artistic development, one that

was distinct from European phase of the inter war years when her work

showed an engagement with the works of Hungarian painters, especially

500

Amrita Sher –Gil in a letter dated 15th

June 1937 to Karl Khandalavala from Simla, mentioned in Vivan Sundram, Re-take of Amrita, Tulika books, New Delhi, 2001.

501 Dalmia Yashodhara, Amrita Sher- Gil A Life, Penguin Books, 2006.

502 Dalmia Yashodhara, Amrita Sher- Gil A Life, Penguin Books, 2006, p. preface xiii.

236

the Nagybanya School of painting.503

At this point there is a startling

change in the artist's development. Perhaps it was

because she felt incapable of sustaining the tension of the Brahmacharis,'

or she may have realised intuitively that the influence of Ajanta was an

artistic impasse; or may, be it was just her own inconsistency. Whether it

was for one or a combination of all of these reasons, she now painted two

small pictures simultaneously with the execution of one of her largest

compositions, South Indian Villagers going to Market. In these she

deliberately eschewed the monumentality of her trilogy in favour of

parrot-like figures, sitting at their ease in a courtyard, painted so as to

convey a sonorous modulation of colour and an unctuous texture.

In April 1938 she wrote to Karl, 'I don't know whether it is a

passing phase or a durable change in my outlook but I see in a more

detached manner, more ironically than I have ever done. Less,'humanely'

if you like to put it that way but also less romantically. That is why at the

moment I am fonder of the Moghuls, the Rajputs and the Jains than of

Ajanta. Also I am terribly fond of painting. I grow more and fonder of it,

of paintings itself, if you know what I mean.‘504

503

In the art world, the MIENK ( a circle of Impressionists and Naturalists), the Nyolcak(eight) and Nagybanya school were established. Named after the town in which it was established, the Nagybanya School rebelled against the dreary art taught by the Academy and believed in plein-air painting, which involved working from natural sight without any modification, as well as using primary colours, painting primarily in the open air, and preserving the phenomenon of sunshine.

504letter to Karl Khandavala dated April 1938 in Amrita Sher- Gil, Sundaram.

237

From January to May 1938, she painted at Saraya: ‗Elephants

Bathing in a Green Pool Red Clay Elephant and The Verandah with Red

Pillars and at Simla, Hill Side, Hill Scene and Village Scene‘. Of these she

said, ―these little compositions are the expression of my happiness and

that is why perhaps I am particularly fond of them and will always have a

tender spot in my heart for them even when my calm vanishes and the

little compositions along with it‖.505

From this period onwards, the figures in Amrita's paintings were

either represented as small caricatures placed in a landscape or they

physically take up the whole canvas and their emotive expressions and

gestures became the raison d'etre of her work.

The Society, the most esteemed in Colonial India, exacted its

revenge by excluding her work from a show several years later. In 1939

she became convinced of the general hostility of the Indian Art World: the

Bombay Art Society rejected some of the works submitted; the Fine Arts

Exhibition held in Delhi failed to make any special commendation of her

work. For her part, lacking all diplomacy, she lost a lucrative sale of her

works in Hyderabad because she ridiculed the art collector‘s taste for

Victorian painting.

505

letter to Karl Khandavala dated April 1938 in Amrita Sher-Gil, Sundaram.

238

By the end of 1939, she felt demoralized by what she interpreted as

indifference to her work. Amrita wrote ruefully, ‗Funny that I, who can

accept a present without the least pang of conscience, should not be able

to say that a bad picture is good even if it is in my interest to do so.‘506

She

wrote that the ‗artist has every right to reject or accept public estimates of

her work. When the public makes a mistake regarding a picture, it is the

business of the artist by some gesture to show that the public is un-

informed and dull.‘507

Nonetheless she craved for recognition. In 1937, the Bombay Art

Society awarded her a gold medal for her painting Three Women. She was

deeply moved because she felt she did not have to compromise her artistic

integrity to receive this recognition. SherGil held her first solo exhibition

at the fashionable, Faletti‘s Hotel in Lahore in November 1937. Charles

Fabri, the Hungarian art critic of the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore,

expressed his admiration for the kind of modernism he could relate to,

modern but not ugly or incomprehensible.508

By 1939 Amrita Shergil executed some superb paintings. According

to Charles Fabri ―The India which Amrita Shergil painted was her own

familiar country. At the age of nine she comes to live in the village of her

506

Letter dated April, 1941 from Saraya to her sister, in Vivan Sundaram Amrita Sher- Gil, p. 100.

507 Amrita Sher- Gil, The Usha, special issue, August 1942, p 34.

508 Dalmia Yashodhara, Amrita Sher- Gil A Life, Penguin Books, 2006, p.100.

239

uncle. And what she saw their impressed her more than anything else- the

peasants with their sad faces, with their dreamy lost looks, the slow

swaying gait. The peasants were not strange, odd creatures of another

exotic world, but her own sister and brothers..... In her whole artistic

‗oeuvre‘, Amrita Shergil never painted a single Indian in action, running

or gesticulating or dancing or rejoicing. All her figures are like her huge

elephants or buffaloes lazily lounging or placidly moving with gentle

steps. Great dead walls, large, static trees add to the static peace and

breathless silence of her work.509

Despite her remarkable stylistic affinities with Gauguin, she was

moving more and more towards an individual style of her own, that is,

towards greater simplification of form and elimination of unimportant

details. By 1936, she had seen the Ajanta frescoes that were to leave a

deep impression on her style and colour schemes. In Fruit Vendors and

Bride's Toilet, this influence is palpably discernible. Here we have the

same Ajantesque simplification of physique and the same reliance on clear

outime and firmly moulded form. This style marks almost all her paintings

executed between 1935 and 1937. By this time, she had achieved that

509

www.poknapham.in/archives/2009/March/18-03-2009/Page_4

240

perfect blending of western techniques and Indian spirit, which no Indian

painter had been able to achieve till then. She had laid the foundation of

modern Indian art.

Amrita Shergil guided her contemporary painters not only by her

works but also through lectures and articles in which she urged them not

to cling to "traditions that were once vital, sincere and splendid and which

are now merely empty formulae", nor to imitate fifth rate western art

slavishly. She also told them to "break away from both and produce

something vital, connected with the soil, something essentially Indian."510

Her most devastating criticisms were reserved for the Bengal School,

because even in decline its historian attitude defined artistic nationalism,

which she needed to demolish in order to establish her own artistic

‗authenticity‘.

Forced to acknowledge, Nandalal‘s pre-eminence, privately she

dismissed his ‗uninspired cleverness‘, which was ‗capable of producing

good work only under the inspiration of a particular school‘.511

Far from

fulfilling its vast ambitions, she declared, the renaissance in Indian

Painting led by the Bengal School was responsible for the stagnation of

Indian art.

510

www.sikh-heritage.co.uk/arts/amritashergil/amritashergill.html

511 Letter to Khandalval, Feb- March 1938 in Sundaram, Amrita Sher- Gil, p. 124.

241

Its only raison d‘etre was to have made at least ‗a certain layer of

people‘ in India aware of the great art of the past.512

Her radio broadcast

on 19th August 1941, months before her death, publicly denouncing the

Bengal School, has earned justified notoriety. But she was even less

sparing of the academic artists of Bombay led by Gladstone Solomon.513

The Government of India has declared her works as National Art

Treasures, and most of them are housed in the National Gallery of Modern

Art in New Delhi.

Thus we find that Amrita Shergil showed a strong empathy and

deep engagement for her Indian subjects and depicted the poverty the

poverty which she witnessed. Bride Toilet, Bramhcharies and south Indian

villagers going to market are few of her works which convey her

compassion for the underprivileged. Influenced by her surroundings and

experiences, her paintings are carved out with eloquent symbols of the

human conditions. Her artistic mission was to express the lives of Indian

people through her paintings. This marked a significant point in her

512

Sher –Gil, The Usha, p. 24.

513 Letter to Khandalval, 15

TH January 1937, in Sundaram, Amrita Sher- Gil, p. 102..

242

artistic development, where she engaged with the rhythms of rural life in

India.

Chapter-IV

Post Colonial

Painting

243

Post Colonial Painting

4:1 Pre Independence Art Trends: The influence of modern art was felt

long before independence in cities like Bombay, Calucutta, Madras,

Lahore, Lucknow, and later in Jaipur, where schools of art were

established by the British. Other agencies which promoted contemporary

art were the art societies in these cities: The Bombay Art Society

(established in 1888), All India Fine arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) at

Delhi (established in 1928), The Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta

(Established in 1933), Punjab Fine arts Society, Lahore, and similar

institution in Madras and Lucknow514

.

4:2 Gladstone Solomon and the developments in Bombay: Bombay

was the first city where contemporary art developed and from here it

spread to other centres in India. Pestonji Bomanji, M.V. Dhurandhar, M

.F. Pithawala, J. R. Lalkaka, A. X. Trinidade, V. A .Mali, V. S. Gurjar, S.

L. Haldankar, Gopal Dueskar (painters), and G.K. Mhatre, V.P.

Karmarkar, B .V. Talim, D. K. Goregaonkar were well known artists.

514

artbullindia.com/new1/auctionCatalogueFeb2014.pdf

244

Gladstone Solomon, Director of the Sir J. J. School of Art (1919-

36), also contributed significantly towards the development of

contemporary art in western India and he initated moves to ‗restore‘

Indian art.515

He greatly admired traditional Indian art. The revival of

Indian art, however, was first launched by E. B. Havell when he joined the

Government School of Art, Calcutta, as Principal in 1896. Dr Ananda

Coomaraswamy, Sister Nivedita and Aurobindo too joined him in his

efforts. They sought to expose the ignorance of English critics, such as

John Ruskin Monier Williams, George Birdwood, Vincent Smith and

Roger fry, who severely condemned traditional Indian art as ‗meaningless

fragments of colour and flowing of line‘.516

Solomon was determined to inject a new energy into the moribund

art school and provide a persuasive ‗indigenous‘ alternative to

Abanindranath‘s orientalism.517

Under the guidance of Solomon, the Sir J. J School of art executed

in 1923, a prestigious assignment known as ‗The India Room‘ which was

England‘s first viewing of contemporary Indian art.518

The objective was

to show that the true work of the modern Indian artist is to revive the

515

Dalmia Yashodhara, The Making of Modern Indian Art the progressives, Oxford, 2001, p. 26.

516 Mago Pran Nath, Contemporary Art in India, A Perspective, National Book Trust, India, 2001, p.45.

517 Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. p. 182

518 Solomon Gladstone W.E, The Bombay Revival of Indian Art.Govt of Bombay, pp. 1-8

245

ancient and national methods of artistic expression and revitalize and

restore them.519

The Government of India planned an ambitious display of the

natural and artificial products of the Empire in 1924, including

contemporary Indian art, as a triumph of enlightened patronage. What

better way to publicize the success of the new mural class than to win a

prominent place in this lavish Imperial showcase? Prima facie, this was an

uphill task for Solomon because in official circles the Bengal School was

synonymous with contemporary art in India.520

SirWilliam Rothenstein,

head of the Royal College of Art, wrote to his friend Rabindranath Tagore

on 6 April 1923: [Laurence] Binyon, [William] Foster & myself are acting

as official advisers in the matter of Indian representation in the Fine Art

section at next year‘s Exhibition. We feel that if your nephews could send

over their collection of paintings we could show a portion of them & give

our people here a chance of seeing the extent and quality of the

portfolios.521

Abanindranath‘s disciples, a number of whom headed

government art schools, were entrusted with the selection of works for

Wembley. A Fine Arts Committee was formed which included two

519

Mago Pran Nath, op. cit. p. 45.

520 Mitter Parth, 2007, op.cit. p. 191.

521 Rothenste to Tagore, 6

th April 1923 quoted in Mitter Parth,2007, op. cit. p. 191.

246

orientalists, O. C. Gangoly, the ideologue of the Bengal School, and

Samarendranath Gupta, Deputy Principal of the Mayo School of Art in

Lahore. However, in order to appear even-handed, Lionel Heath, Principal

of the Mayo School, and Solomon were also nominated to the committee.

Once there, with the dedicated support of Lloyd and his own forceful

canvassing, Solomon was able to secure a strong representation for

Bombay.522

His students were invited to send an entire Indian Room,

decorated by the different departments, in a triumphant demonstration of

Gesamtkunstwerk. Dhurandhar organized the work, which took nine

months to complete. On the eve of his retirement, Lloyd paid a last visit to

the school to admire the Indian Room before it was shipped to London.523

Entirely built of Malabar teak, the Indian Room boasted a richly

painted ceiling, depicting the Hindu sun god Surya and the eight planets,

and was embellished with decorative borders of Ajantan inspiration.524

The mural painting at the Imperial Secretariat, Delhi, were also

executed under- Solomon‘s supervision.525

These paintings, Located in a

wide dome, over a broad cornice and narrow frieze, measure about 1,500

square feet. The mural depicted arts such as music, drams, dance, painting

522

Ibid. p. 191.

523 Solomon Gladstone W.E., The Bombay Revival of Indian Art, published with the permission of

Government of Bombay, Chapter III, The Indian Room.

524 Ibid.

525 Mitter Parth, 2007, op. cit. pp.202-210

247

sculpture and architecture, as well as eight aspires (flying figures)

representing the famous periods of Indian art526

. These paintings were

executed by Bhonsale, Fernandes, Nagarkar, Ahivasi, Gadgil, Joshi,

Mohite, Ms Davar and Ms Bamboat, some of whom later become teachers

in the Sir J. J. School of Art.527

The project proved the strength of the

Bombay painters in the handling of the thematic Indian style, and brought

great prestige to the School.

In 1936 Charles Gerrard became the director of the Sir J. J. School

of Art.528

He gave a new direction to painting and sculpture by exposing

students and teachers to modern techniques in pictorial design, application

of paint and achieving textural effects.529

Students were encouraged to

paint in thick impasto of colour and even apply it with a palette knife.530

Revivalism, so tenderly nurtured by Solomon, was gradually replaced by a

bold attempt to fuse the concepts of Indian pictorial design with new

media and styles of execution.

526

Ibid.

527 Ibid.

528 Dalmia Yashodhara, 2001, p. 27.

529 Ibid. p.27.

530 Ibid. p. 27.

248

At this juncture (1937) a group of young painters, who come to be called

‗Young Turks,‘531

successfully synthesized the Indian design value with

mannerisms of post- impressionism and expressionism. The group, which,

included, P.T.Reddy, M.T.Bhople, A. A. Majeed, M. Y. Kulkarni and C.

B. Baptista, effectively promoted interest in innovative technique. These

Young Turks or ‗The Bombay Group of contemporary Indian Artists‘ held

their first exhibition in Bombay in 1941. In his foreword to the catalogue

of the exhibition Gerrard wrote:

The exhibition represents the work of five young artists who have banded

themselves together in a group, to place before the public their individual

expressions in painting, each approaching the subject from his own

particular angle and vision. They are certainly a mixed group consisting of

Brahmins, non- Brahmins, a Mohammedan, and an Indian Christian artists

working harmoniously together as a simple unit; their singleness of

purpose will eventually prove their strength in promoting a contemporary

art movement which they have launched.They are too preoccupied in their

mission to enter into futile argument and idle controversy, they prefer to

get on with the job…I have personally watched the development of the

artists and have admired their untiring effort to acquire the power to

express themselves in paint. Often, under the most difficult financial

circumstances they have continued to forge ahead stimulated by the

artistic urge within themselves.532

Artists scattered throughout the vast sub-continent whether it be

north, south, east, or west, are becoming increasingly conscious of the

necessity for breaking away from the constant repetition of the admittedly

531

Ibid. p. 27.

532 Dalmia Yashodhara, 2001, pp. 27-28.

249

good things which the culture of India has shown in the past, in an

endeavour to create, it is hoped, a true and worthy representative

contemporary art of an India having a great tradition and cultural

background.

The time-worn maxim that art knows no boundaries still holds

goods, and it would indeed be futile to restrict the conception of

contemporary art to conform to a limited and provincial outlook.

Nevertheless, India owing to the vastness of area, the richness in the

variety of her people and her many creeds, must necessarily produces

different means of approach in the attainment of contemporary art.

Gerrard was far sighted as to the course of development Indian art

would, or perhaps should, take, particularly in view of the growth in

internationalism in art. He was clearly conscious of the necessity for

change towards secularism in art, which would be true and worthy of the

‗great Indian‘ tradition and its cultural background. He hoped for a true

synthesis of the modern Western and the traditional Indian aesthetic

norms.

The artists of Bombay were not much affected by the Bengal

revivalist movement. Despite the efforts of Principals of the J. J. School

of Art, Griffiths, Greenwood and Burns to encourage an Indian style of

Painting, illusionist realism prevailed and continued for the first three

250

decades of the century. Although Gladstone Solomon succeeded in

persuading some of his students to adopt the ‗Indian technique‘, the

British academic style continued.533

4:3 Developments in Calcutta: -In Calcutta, the 1940s saw the

culmination of the national freedom struggle, a devastating famine and the

fearful impact of the Second World War. But neither the War nor the

struggle for Independence created any impact on the creativity of the

artists in Calcutta. The effect of the famine was so strong that it stirred the

Calcutta artists more than the War or politics. Among the artists who

painted striking scenes of the famine included Zainul Abedin (1917-76)

and Adinath Mukherji (1921-59).

The most important event of the 1940s was the establishment of the

Calcutta Group in 1943. It was founded by Gopal Ghose, Paritosh Sen,

Prodosh Das Gupta and others of Calcutta, who had imbibed the spirit of

the modern art movement in Europe and shared aesthetic norms that were

contemporary. Although their individual style was different, they shared in

innovative outlook, a need to shake off the shackles of tradition and enter

the mainstream of world art.534

533

Mago Pran Nath, op. cit. p. 48.

534 Mago Pran Nath, op. cit. p. 49.

251

Another important painter, introspective and self-reliant, was

Binode Behari Mukherjee (1904-80). Independent almost to the point of

being lonely, he was committed to reiterating the experience of the

mystery of the ordinary world.

Ramkinkar Vaji, who spent all his life at Shantiniketan, was trained

in the Western academic style; he created entirely by his own genius. His

subjects were the common people, he worked mostly in a form that was a

peculiar synthesis of the native folk and subsist elements, possessing a

social significance and symbolic depth. His work reveals an ―organic

integrity and exuberant energy.‖

4:4 Developments In Madras: In the late nineteenth century artists from

the South painted scenes of Indian life and mythological themes in the

academic styles, as evident in the works of artist like Aligiriswamy Naidu,

Ramaswamy Naicker and later Raja Ravi Varma. Devi Prasad Roy

Choudhury, Principal of the Government school of arts and Crafts at

Madras (1927-50), developed a powerful style in sculpture in realistic

representation. His successor, K. C. S. Paniker, supported the former‘s

views on form and content, but did not overlook the importance of

technical methods and materials.

Between 1884 and 1892, E. B. Havell, the Superintendent of the

Madras School of Arts and Crafts, had mooted the idea of ‗Indianness‘ as

252

the ideal and norm for contemporary art as opposed to the Westernisation

that was being propagated and promoted by the colonial administration535

.

He, however, found a more sensitive response from the educated and

cultured elite in Calcutta, where he moved later as Principal of the

Government school of Arts and Crafts. It was in Calcutta that his ideas

paved the way for the Bengal School movement and gained ‗the first

expression of an ideology of cultural nationalism in the art of the country.

The ideals of the Bengal School and their potential for an all-round

momentum of the art movement in the country were brought actively to

the art scene of Madras by Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury, who remained in

Madras as principal of the Government school of Arts and Crafts from

1927 to 1950. The ideology of Indianness, however, had arrived in Andhra

earlier than in Madras. Nandalal Bose had taught art at the Art School in

Machilipatnam as early as 1910536

.

4:5 Developments in Lahore: B. C. Sanyal who come to Lahore from

Calcutta in 1929, initially to erect a statue of Lala Lajpat Rai at the site of

the All India Congress Committee session, found Lahore a congenial place

for work and stayed on. He contributed significantly to the art scene of

Lahore (and later of Delhi, where he and his associates had perforce to

535

Mago Pran Nath, op.cit. p.51.

536 Mago Pran Nath, op. cit. p. 52

253

migrate after the Partition in 1947). He taught at the Mayo School of Art

& Craft from 1929-36. Subsequently, he set up a studio-cum- teaching

workshop called the Lahore School of Fine Arts, which popularly come to

be known as Sanyal‘s Studio. It aimed to experiment in informal art

education and soon became a highly popular and admired hub of art

activity, both for artists and the intelligentsia of the city. Sanyal's Studio

served as a nucleus of a new cultural wave for nearly ten years in which

his early associates like Dhan Raj Bhagat, and later ones like Harkrishan

Lall and Pran Nath Mago (who had graduated from the Sir J. J. School of

Art) played an active role, particularly in the two years immediately

before the Partition.

4:6 Developments in Lucknow: Lucknow has traditionally been a centre

of art and culture. Its social, political and economic complexity and

cultural diversity influenced the impulses and creative urges of its artists.

The artists who were products of this environment and played a

significant role in the art scene were J. M. Ahivasi, A. K. Haldar, L. M

Sen, B. Sen, Shriram Vaish, Sudhir Khastgir, Shridhar Mahapatra, H. L.

Merh, Bishwanath Mukerjee and R.S. Bisht. J.M. Ahivasi, who was an

eminent painter in the Rajput style, eventually joined the Sir J. J. School

of Art and became a strong influence on its students during the time of

Charles Gerrard. Ahivasi and Gerrard both desired that the Indian artists

254

should neither forget tradition nor blindly follow Western techniques,

whether academic or modern.

K. Haldar (the well known exponent of the Bengal School) ,and L.

M. Sen and B. Sen (adept in the academic idiom), were all on the staff of

the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Lucknow, for a number of

years, and substantially influenced not only their young students but also

practicing artists. Although they were contemporaries, each worked in a

manner unique to himself. One has only to juxtapose L. M. Sen's

landscapes with those of B. Sen, or the sculptures of Shridhar Mahapatra

with those of Shriram Vaish or Sudhir Khastgir to realise this.

The wash technique and the academic style were equally popular

and practiced simultaneously. The artists of this region worked with a

certain degree of openness.

4:7 Art in Bengal During 1940 and Formation of Calcutta Group:

During the 1940s Indian art experienced an ideological shift in its course

and a part of it veered more towards Marxist socialist ideals. For the first

time in the history of Indian art those artists emerged whose political

consciousness was based on their immediate realities that became the

basis of their arts as well.537

Atul Bose was among this group of artists

537

Halder Sritama, Atul Bose: A Short Evaluation, art etc news and views, June, 2012, issue, 29.

255

whose reactions to the social injustice and repression were immediate and

harsh.

The Bengal Famine (1943-1944) was one of the greatest cruelties

ever happen to the human race, for in this man-made famine thousands of

farmers died of hunger. The British government's scorch earth policy and

natural disaster destroyed most of the crops in Bengal. The rest of it was

stocked and hoarded. Black market and excess greed of some people

created a shortage of food and grain. The people from rural areas migrated

to the cities in search of food only to die on the streets. Artists like

Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, Zainul Abedin, Gobardhan Ash and Gopal

Ghosh poignantly captured the inhumanity of the situation.538

Atul Bose

also was a part of it. He made sketches and some oil paintings. But his

works such as The Birth of Kalki was evidently dominated by his training

as an academic artist.539

The Birth of Kalki, portraying, ‗the birth of child

from the womb of a starving mother on the verge of death,‘ a roadside

scene that the artist had witnessed some where in south Calcutta. Nikhil

Sarkar is of the opinion that, ‗The Bengal Famine of 1943 gave birth to yet

another Kalki in the form of Calcutta Group.‘540

538

See Plates No.63a, 63b, 63c, & 63d.

539 Halder Sritama, op. cit. 2012 issue,29.

540 Sarkar Nikhal, A Matter of Conscience, Artist bear witness to the Great Bengal Famine, Pub by

Punascha, Calcutta, Rev. ed. 2003, p.35.

256

During 1940s, young artists likes Chittaprosad Bhattacharya (1915–

78), Zainul Abedin (1917-76), Govardhan Ash (1907-96), Somnath Hore

(1921-2006) and Gopal Ghose (1930-80) felt the exigency to respond to

the appalling ground-reality of Bengal in the wake of the devastating

Bengal Famine (1943-44) and the traumatic experiences of communal

riots (1946).

The formation of the Calcutta Group in 1943, amidst the

commotion of the Second World War and the infamous Bengal famine is

a testimony of the artists waking up to a call different from the typical

Nationalist agendas and Bengal School ‗romanticism‘.541

The decade of

the 40s saw the emergence of a different mode of artistic expression for a

primarily socially-responsive content, which made it a deviant from the

dominant narrative of the ‗national‘. When in the political sphere the

alternative prospect of a Marxist-Communist initiative was on the rise and

the concomitant cultural manifestations of the anti-fascist protest

movements were catching on, this genre in the art of the 1940s owes itself

considerably, directly or indirectly, to the evolving transformation in

artistic consciousness.542

541

Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art etc, News and Views, April 2012, issue-27.

542 Ibid.

257

This transformation is considered as a voice of dissent in the art of

these artists. They all disagreed to ‗imagine‘ a nation and felt the necessity

to address the immediate and the ‗real‘ as more pressing and pertinent.543

The above artists held art as a tool to answer to the ‗needs of the time‘.

Clearly, for them the ‗needs‘ were the urgency to communicate the

concern for the suffering multitude. The element of ‗protest‘ – political or

otherwise – can be located in this indomitable urge and the search for the

relevant visual idiom and format to fulfil that urge as a social mission for

the artists.544

For artists like Chittaprosad, Zainul and Somnath, stark ‗black and

white‘ drawings of the chosen/observed reality are moving records of a

dismal situation socially engendered by means of exploitations and

coercions. Their political affiliation with the Communist Party and

subsequent exposure and experience of the harsh reality helped to infuse

their art with an unflattering mode of depiction, often with a directness of

a protest-slogan.545

The pictures of Zainul Abedin, Chittaprosad and

Somnath Hore had a wide circulation in the city and their sketches were

regularly published in the periodicals like ‗Janayuddha‘ and ‗People‘s

543

Ibid.

544 Ibid.

545 Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art News and

Views, April 2012, issue-27

258

War‘ published by the Communist Party.546

Under these circumstances,

and with an entirely new approach to the function of art, the very artistic

practice became synonymous with documentation or eye-witness account

of the life of the wretched masses.

In 1943, Chittaprosad published his work ‗Hungry

Bengal‘ (November 1943), a textual and visual record of his travels

through the famine and cyclone ravaged district of Midnapore of south

Bengal. Both the text and the drawings reveal the grimness of the situation

and the images particularly focus on the deplorable condition, by drawing

attention to specific details. Animals and birds feasting upon the human

corpse, broken pots scattered in a devastated hut, pathetic vacant

expressions of the hapless people, are some of the poignant details

Chittaprosad pays attention to in these images. In doing so, he privileges

the socially concerned and politically charged ‗documenting‘ function of

art over both academic traditions of art school and the Bengal School.547

He vividly captured the human cost of the famine and targeted

colonial rule and global capitalism which he identified as the main culprits

of the deadly food crises. The Hungry Bengal was the product of extensive

546

Sarkar Nikhal, A Matter of Conscience, Artist bear witness to the Great Bengal Famine, Pub by

Punascha, Calcutta, Rev ed. 2003, p. 28.

547 Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art News and

Views, April 2012, issue-27

259

tour, which provoked the wrath of the government and subsequently the

British authority confiscated and destroyed five thousand copies of this

book.548

The abbreviated realism, zooming on to harsh details, was also

shared by Zainul Abedin, and to an extent, Somnath Hore. In 1943,

Somnath Hore did visual documentation and reporting of the Bengal

famine for the Communist Party magazine Jannayuddha (People's War).

His coming of age as an artist coincided with the 1946 peasant unrest in

Bengal known as the Tebhaga movement. Hore became a follower

of Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, the political propagandist and

printmaker.549

.

Hence, the protest was not only of a socio-political kind but,

importantly, it left serious consequences in the art idiom. It was, in the

words of Sanjoy Kumar Mallik, ‗an attempt to purge art of its mythic,

classicized, literary and lyrical material made possible … by concentrating

on the image of a suffering and debased humanity.‘550

The man-made

Great Bengal Famine of 1943 moved Zainul deeply. He created his famine

paintings, which, when exhibited in 1944, brought him even more critical

acclaim. He was an influential member of the Calcutta Group of

548

Sarkar Nikhal, A Matter of Conscience, op.cit. p. 28.

549 Ghose Arun,Somenath Hore

, life and art, gallerie 88 2007

550 Mallik Sanjay Kumar, Chittoprasad-A Retrospective, vol.1, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2011,p 39

260

progressive artists. Zainul Abedin in his harsh images of the urban

destitute visualized in the most rudimentary starkness of black ink

employed by dry-brush technique, successfully did away with tonal

softness usually associated with romantic view of life.551

Whereas Chittaprosad often inscribes the names of the suffering

people on drawings, Zainul emphasizes the anonymity of the sufferers and

the ignominy of the starvation and deprivation.552

Besides having their

drawings printed in the party periodicals, the Communist Party even

organized an exhibition of Zainul‘s drawings in 1943. Beyond doubt, they

left no stone unturned in ensuring the accessibility of these pictures to the

mass. Thus, any kind of exclusivity was opposed and art was made

‗public‘ in the most elementary sense of the term.

Bengal Painters Testimony (1944) an album of pictures published

on the occasion of its eighth Annual Conference by the All India Students‘

Federation553

– is another such attempt to make socially relevant art

available to the public and in this album we find two touching famine

drawings by Gopal Ghose. Ghose‘s imagery may not be politically

charged yet the resentment and a sense of accountability is evident. He

551

Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art News and Views, April 2012, issue-27

552 Ibid.

553 Sarkar Nikhil, op.cit. pp. 33-34.

261

turned to the imageries of a riot-torn city as a theme with equal vigour and

exigency.554

The violent flames and burning vehicles which changed the

cityscape during those dreadful days found a compelling expression in

Ghose‘s paintings. Similarly, Quamrul Hassan engaged himself with the

appalling visuals of famine with the goriest details. Haunting memories of

history got inscribed in Quamrul‘s art conveying in the language of

illusionist realism the severity of the intolerable disaster.555

―Quite unbeknownst to me, the wounds of the 1940s famine, the

uncertainty of war, the horrors of communal riots of 1946— all that (we)

were sinking themselves into the techniques of my drawings — the

helpless around us, the neglected and the hungry,‖ says artist and sculptor

(late) Somnath Hore in his book, ―My Concept of Art‖.

In 1946, Somnath Hore took up the project of a visual

documentation of Tebhaga movement in North Bengal, when he was still

a second year student in the Government School of Art, Calcutta. Tebhaga

Diary and the subsequent Tea Garden Diary (1947), eschew the rhetorical

slant evident in Zainul‘s drawings and tend to become more factual. The

554

Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art News and Views, April 2012, issue-27.

555 Sarkar Nikhil, op.cit. pp. 41-43..

262

very act of recording through sketches (and later in wood-engravings) one

of the strongest ‗left-wing mobilizations of the politicized peasantry in

Indian history‘ was another testimony to the political consciousness of

these artists and their conviction in the potentiality of art to voice the

revolutionary masses.

In Somnath‘s Diaries what is most significant, beside the visual

facts, is his conviction in the struggle of these suppressed men and women

and their political aspirations. Amidst the abysmal situations caused by the

man-made famine , Somnath found the sharecropper‘s revolt reassuring

and heroic. Consequently his images are affirmative and determined,

moving away from the earlier images of suffering to a new image of

conviction – political field notes assuming the status of a political

vision.556

While the reputed art historian, R. Siva Kumar, in the essay entitled

Somnath Hore: A Reclusive Socialist and a Modernist Artist wrote, ―We

do not chosose suffering, and we do not choose heroism. But suffering

often compels us to be heroic. Somnath Hore (1921-2006) was an artist

who led a quiet and heroic life. Quiet because he always kept himself

away from the glare of the art world; and heroic because he chose to stand

556

Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art News and Views, April 2012, issue-27

263

by the suffering and held steadfast to his political and thematic

commitments even though he knew this meant trading a lonely path.

He kept himself away from the din of art not because art was a

lesser passion for him but because life mattered more and art that did not

stand witness to human suffering, did not mean much to him. And human

suffering was for him, as a Communist, not an existential predicament

into which we are all born (or a visitation or even a tool to know God as it

was for Van Gogh), but something always socially engendered.‖ In the

same essay R. Siva Kumar writes, ―The famine and the sharecropper‘s

revolt acquired an archetypal significance in Somnath Hore‘s vision of

reality. During these years there were a host of other tragic visitations: the

communal riots, the Partition, the exodus of the religious minorities and

the loss of home for millions, including Somnath. But none of them found

a place in his work comparable to that of the famine and the peasant

revolt, which were for him symbols of human condition and aspirations of

those with whom he identified.‖557

The visual forms of protest found a more convenient and explicit

voice in the captivating posters designed by Chittaprasad. These

propaganda posters he did for the party are clear-cut in content and taking

recourse to the satirical mode, merged with an anatomical precision are

557

R. Shiv Kumar, Somnath Hore: AReclusive Socialist and Modernist Bengal Art, New Perspective, Praikshan, Essays in the Art’s, Calcutta 2010, pp 55- 78

264

strong visual statements of conviction and dissent. The rebellious

character of art is nowhere as pronounced as in these works, often

reminding us of Gaganendranath Tagore‘s cartoon in terms of its

uncluttered directness and rancor.558

In this context, the function played by

the technology of printmaking is enormously significant. Zainul Abedin,

Chittaprosad, and Somnath Hore were amongst the first few to realize the

potential of printmaking as a medium for the masses, and led by

Chittaprasad, printmaking certainly assumed a new role as an instrument

of protest.559

The famine of Bengal touched the then masters of modern Indian

expressionism like Nandalal Bose and Jamini Roy and the Socialist

painters alike. Nandalal Bose, known for his lyrical renderings of Indian

mythology, painted ―Lord Shiva as a beggar‖ to portray the horrors of the

famine. 560

The art was distinctive in style – marked by a characteristic clarity

of lines, expression and details that ferreted the out the emotional angst of

the victims and survivors of the famine. The strokes were firm — and the

558

Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art News and Views, April 2012, issue-27

559 Majumdar Soumik Nandy, 40s and now: The Legacy of Protest in the Art of Bengal ,Art News and

Views, April 2012, issue-27

560 Chatterjee Madushree, Famine in Bengal - Somnath Hore shows the art of suffering India-Art,

New Delhi, Dec 26 2013

265

studies of human figures were mostly anatomical to the minute structure

of bones, skins and skeletal framework of the subjects. Village was the

pre-occupation of artists like Somenath Hore, Zainul Abedin and

Chittoprasad, who travelled around the Bengal countryside sketching the

famine for Communist publications.561

In the process of articulating the experiences, responses and

engagement with the immediate social reality often with an unequivocal

political commitment, these artists of the‘ 40s in Bengal, for the first time

in the history of modern Indian art, provided a promising iconography of

protest.

4:8 Calcutta Group (1943-1953): Calcutta during the late 40s had

witnessed artists like Somnath Hore and Chittaprasad amongst others, who

responded to the Bengal Famine, while those who gathered courage to

move away from the Bengal School formed the Calcutta Group, were

Nirode Mazumdar, Paritosh Sen, Sunil Madhav Sen, Gopal Ghose,

Prodosh Das Gupta, Shubha Tagore, Rathin Mitra and Gobardhan Ash,

who grew into serious artists as they worked through the 50s.

The Calcutta Group of artists came into existence in 1943 as a

response to the famine in Bengal that year which killed thousands of

561

Chatterjee Madushree, Famine in Bengal - Somnath Hore shows the art of suffering India-Art, New Delhi, Dec 26 2013

266

people in the countryside and provoked scenes that shook the conscience

of the state. Other contributory factors were the effects of World War II,

felt in the form of high prices, heightened political activity (Gandhi's Quit

India call) and frantic troop movements. The situation seemed to artists in

Bengal to demand a response from them which the Bengal School

sensibility, whatever its other achievements, may not help adequately in

generating.562

The founders of the group were Prodosh Dasgupta, who was

primarily a sculptor and the painters Gopal Ghosh, Rathin Maitra, Nirode

Mazumdar, Subho Tagore and Prankrishna Pal; they were later joined by

Abani Sen, Sunilmadhab Sen, Gobardhan Ash, Krishna Pal, Bansi

Chandragupta and Hemanta Mishra. The artists professed humanistic

ideals and, in their work, attempted to show their sense of concern in a

language that combined the Bengali pictorial idiom with the contemporary

modernist manner. Gopal Ghosh, for instance, patterned his lines on the

style adapted by Nandalal Bose of the Bengal School from Japanese and

Chinese calligraphy. This was in keeping with the group‘s manifesto

which demanded that art should be "international and interdependent."563

562

Dalmia Yashodhara, The Making of Modern Indian Art- The Progressives, Oxford, 2001, p. 223.

563 Ibid. p. 223.

267

The group's work, exhibited both in Calcutta and Bombay, received

wide praise, including from the writers Mulk Raj Anand and E. M.

Forster, and the critic Rudy Von Leyden. The latter wrote: "They have

sought to imbibe a far more vital feeling from contemporary Far Eastern

and European Art than their elders did. But this is not to suggest that they

are in any sense imitative, for their love of the people and the old folk

culture of Bengal roots them in the long Bengal tradition."564

These artists

fell into the current of social upheaval affecting India. They banded

together to form the Calcutta Group, and urged that art be used to effect

meaningful changes in society. The Calcutta Group was born in a complex

social environment and it‘s member were forced to think in eschatological

terms.565

They summed up their views in their manifesto:

―The years, 1910-43, were among the most eventful in our

country‘s recent history. This period saw an increasing secularisation of

politics and an expansion in the democratic consciousness in our country.

This change is of fundamental importance to the understanding of modern

art since it provides its new ideals. In the west, kings have long been

dethroned and the reins of the state have passed into the hands of the

564

www.saffrona.Com.

565 Tagore, Sundaram, A Struggle for Modernism, An Essay pub in Asian Art News, January/February

1996, p. 30.

268

common man. Today, the artists no longer decorate the baroque palaces of

kings or the interior of the chapels, but work independently in their studios

or decorate the communal buildings. The great French movements in art-

Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism etc., - all evolved through this

changed idea in art. Such a movement is under way in our country, too.

The Gods and Goddesses are being pulled down from their lofty pedestals

and MAN has been enthroned in their place.‖

―Man is supreme, there is none above him‖ – this was the guiding

slogan when the Calcutta Group was formed in 1943. Those were dark

days for Bengal. Famine and pestilence were then stalking the land. The

barbarity and heartlessness all around moved us, a few young artists,

deeply. We began to think, to search our hearts and ask ourselves:

―…which way?‖ We started meeting every evening and those evening

hours were full of our talks, ambitions, plans and schemes. Often, lectures

and discussions on art were also arranged. Of the many distinguished

visitors we had in those days were E. M. Forster, the English novelist,

Fedreic McWilliams, now Slade Professor of Sculpture in London

University, and artists and sculptors from among the members of the

Allied Forces. Both Forster and Mc Williams were much impressed by our

work, and after returning to Britain, Foster gave a talk on Indian Art on

the BBC devoting a considerable portion of it tothe Calcutta Group.

269

Till then, however, our group had not made its debut before the

public. At this juncture we were fortunate in coming into contact with

Mrs. Casey (wife of Governor of Bengal), a true lover of art. She was

mainly instrumental in bringing about the first informal exhibition of our

paintings and sculptures at 5A, S. R. Das Road. Shortly afterwards, in

1944, the entire public exhibition of our group was held under the auspices

of Services Art Club. The exhibition succeeded in creating a commotion

in the circles of art critics. The praise and the criticism that were showered

on us clearly indicated that a new art movement was born. Some of the

critics had it against us that we were bent on destroying the true tradition

of our art. Wrote one of them: ―And though it is categorically denied that

these artists are not affected by the dusty wind from distant Europe, their

national traditions appear to be submerged, full five fathoms deep, under

the dirt carried by that dubious dirty wind.‖

Five years later, the same critic wrote: ―To the average person not

caring for high brow philosophical theories of art the typical products of

the Calcutta Group are ugly and frightful and very far from the attractive

presentation of‘ ‗beauty‘ as ordinarily understood. Yet, these artists may

claim that their original creations of designs in hot and emphatic colour

schemes are excitingly beautiful, as they seek to interpret a new order of

270

beauty… that kind of beauty which is just the expression of the artist‘s

aesthetic excitement.‖

But there were other critics who welcomed us warmly as ―trail-

blazers…the pioneers of a new epoch in Indian art‖ Such were the critical

reaction to our exhibition, but not a piece of painting or sculpture was

sold. We comforted ourselves by interpreting it as a happy omen. The

expenses of the exhibition drove the members deeper into their pockets.

But still we continued, with renewed enthusiasm and hope. The members

of the group went on with their experimentation in forms, colours and

techniques. This was the beginning of a new phase in the history of our

Group.

The year 1948 saw the best reaping of our ‗sweat and Toil‘ and both

connoisseurs and people in general took pride in possessing a painting or a

sculpture from our group members. Foreigners of all shades of belief

made it a point to visit our members and see their works. Of them mention

may be made of Prof. and Mrs. Davidson from U.S.A. Dr. Fischer, a

scholar from Germany, Jean Renoir and Claude Renoir from France. This

turning point in the history of the group was significant in creating an all

India influence towards a progressive and healthy outlook in art. As a

result, progressive artists in other provinces combined themselves and

formed into groups with same ideologies as that of ours.

271

Realizing the possibility of a great future of art in India in this

direction, the Calcutta Group lost no time in organizing a combined group

show with the Bombay Progressive Group in Calcutta in 1950. This show

was interpreted by a section of the press as a challenge to the conservative

art and its connoisseurs and the group was hailed as the precursor of a new

movement.

The guiding motto of our Group is best expressed in the slogan:

―Art should be international and inter-dependent‖. In other words, our art

cannot progress or develop if we always look back to our past glories and

cling to our traditions at all cost. The vast new world of art, rich and

infinitely varied, created by masters the world over in all ages, beckons us.

From Egyptian and Assryian arts to the works of Italian, Dutch, and

French masters – we have to study all of them deeply, develop our

appreciation of them and take from them all that we could profitably

synthesize with our requirements and traditions. This is all the more

necessary because our art has stood still since the seventeenth century. But

during the past three hundred years the world outside of India has made

vast strides in art, has evolved epoch-making discoveries in forms and

techniques. It is absolutely necessary for us to close this hiatus by taking

advantage of these developments in the Western world.

272

And this is inevitable, whether we like it or not. In our world of

supersonic planes and televions, it is neither possible nor desirable to

preserve the lily-white purity of our tradition, because art, like science, is

also becoming an international activity. It is better that we consciously,

discriminatingly, choose and integrate foreign influences with our national

style and tradition; for, otherwise, influences unconsciously imbibed

might distort rather than enrich our art. This is the ideal motivating the

Calcutta Group and we hope to succeed, because we try to understand the

spirit of our times and acknowledge the dictates of necessity.‖566

Thus the above mentioned artists fell into the vortex of social

upheaval affecting India. They banded together to form the Calcutta

Group, and urged that art be used to effect meaningful changes in

society567

. The Calcutta Group of artist used Subho Tagore studio as their

headquarter. The studio served as a salon for the liberal intelligentsia.

Renowned figures such as the writer E. M. Forster, art historian Stella

Kramrisch, and W. G. Archer, and European intellectuals including Martin

Kirkman and John Irwin use to visit the studio and contributed to the

considerable range of opinion about art, politics, and literature. They

566

The Calcutta Group catalogue text of 1953 as reproduced in the book "After the Fall" by Santo Dutta and published by the Delhi Art Gallery, Hauz Khas, in the year 2005. pp 233 to 235

567 See Plate No.64a & 64b

273

argued about how to create forms that, although based on tradition,

simultaneously expressed the complex experience of modern life.568

The members of Calcutta Group came from an elite background.569

On the eve of India‘s Independence, two artistic shifts were manifested by

Calcutta Group. Firstly, they vocally rebelled against the nationalist

Bengal School and secondly, the axis of artistic influence shifted from

London to Paris.570

The group did not have a common artistic ideology, except that they

were all modernists in an artistic atmosphere dominated by the Bengal

School. Subho Tagore had been amongst the founding members of the

Calcutta Group although he exhibited with them only once, in 1945. Born

in the illustrious Tagore family, he had a bohemian spirit in

contradistinction to his family background; apparently he even wished to

relinquish his aristocratic background, evident from the title of his

collection of short stories ―Nil Rakta Lal Hoye Geche‖ (the blue blood has

turned red).571

568

Tagore, Sundaram, A Struggle for Modernism, An Essay pub in Asian Art News, January/February 1996, p. 30

569 Tagore, Sundaram, A Struggle for Modernism, An Essay pub in Asian Art News, January/February

1996, p. 30

570 Ibid. p. 30

571 Sarkar Nikhil, op.cit, pp.37-38.

274

Subho Tagore was exposed to European Modernism. He created

works that fused the folk sensibilities of Aztec and Tibetan art with

Persian Modernism. Therefore, a writer from the Forward Bloc, a socialist

Indian magazine, commented in 1940, ―In order to rouse the

consciousness of the masses, our country needs the services of this class of

artists who are rich in progressive ideas and well equipped with modern

techniques,‖ 572

Rathin Moitra, co- founder of the Calcutta Group, painted works

dealing with social issues because 1943 was the period of unprecedented

communal violence and famine. His style was influenced by curvilinear

art-deco forms and the primitivist vitality of Bengal folk art with its

swerving lines and heightened colours.573

Rathin Maitra, in association

with the Anti- Fascist Writers and Artists Association, had moulded his

outlook and choice of pictorial style and themes.574

It was the same

association, and his active role in organizing the 1945 Bombay exhibition

of the Group under the auspices of the I.P.T.A., that led to the

subsequently much-refuted identification of the Calcutta Group with the

572

Tagore, Sundaram, opcit. P. 30

573 Ibid. p. 30.

574 Malik Sonjoy, “The Calcutta Group”(1943-1953), Article published in Art & Deal, No. 16, vol, 3 No.2,

October-December 2004.

275

political ideals of the Communist Party.575

Rathin Maitra reveals his

admiration and understanding of the paintings of Jamini Roy.

According to Mrinal Ghosh, Gobardhan Ash was one of the

pioneering artists who had considerable contributions in devising the

modernistic forms of the Indian painting during the decade of 1940-s. He

had deep commitment both, towards the socio-temporal reality, and

towards his own life and creativity. He struggled a lot during his formative

years against his personal poverty and also against lack of creative

infrastructure within the artistic environment of that time. He was

rebellious both as an artist and art activist. All these characteristics

devised his personality and the forms of his art.576

When Ash arrived at his own creativity during the middle of 1930‘s,

the art situation of Bengal was within a dilemma. There was a struggle

between the two modes of modernity. One was British academic naturalist

trend originated after 1850‘s through the works of the Art School trained

artists. The other was the neo-Indian school originated by Abanindranath

Tagore during 1897 and expanded by his disciples like Nandalal Basu and

others towards various modes of expressions, which was considered to be

575

Ibid.

576 Ghosh Mrinal, Gobardhan Ash: The Committed Artist of 1940-s,Art News and Views, April 2012,

issue-30.

276

a prototype of national identity577

. By the 1930‘s both of these modes

showed signs of stagnations and degeneration. The poet Rabindranath

Tagore first detected these limitations and tried to find ways and means of

regeneration. In 1919 he established Kala-Bhavana at Santiniketan where

he tried to broaden the aesthetic outlook of the artists. Two artists,

however, within the environment of neo-Indian school were working to

expand the field of form. They were Gaganendranath Tagore and

Sunayani Devi. Rabindranath himself moved towards visual creativity

since 1923-24 and appeared as a very original and intuitive painter since

1928. Out of his dissatisfaction with the extant trends, Jamini Roy also

paved a new way, taking the cue from the popular art of Bengal since

early 1930‘s.

This was the art environmental situation in Bengal when Gobardhan

Ash appeared in the field. Like other artists of his generation, he had his

dissatisfaction which induced him to find a new way. Even before he came

to join the Calcutta Group, Ash had taken to European techniques, and

made quite an impression with his use of a modern art idiom to represent

the society and people of his time.578

He had considerable skill in

academic naturalism. But he could feel that form to be anachronistic to

577

Ibid.

578 Sarker Nikhil, op.cit. p.38.

277

express the social reality of his time. He could not accept the revivalist

trends of the neo-Indian school. He noticed the achievements of Jamini

Roy to generate forms from the folk. Personally he also had a rural

background and adequate knowledge of popular expressions. He tried to

induce it within his own constructions. He also felt that one aspect was

lacking in the existing modes of modernity. Western modernistic forms

generated out of impressionism, post-impressionism, expressionism and

cubism had not been adequately explored, which, he could feel, was

necessary to express the social turmoil and humanistic decay that

darkened the life of Bengal during 1940-s. In building up his own form he

made this synthesis through assimilation of naturalism, folk and Western

modernistic distortions.

The social situation in India, particularly in Bengal during the

decade of 1940s, was very tumultuous. The freedom struggle rose to its

peak along with the colonial exploitation. The famine of 1943 was the

highest expression of the callousness and inhumanity of the alien rulers.

Ash made his art a vehicle to express his rebellion against such inhuman

decays. Like Zainul Abedin, Chittaprasad and Somnath Hore, he was also

an important artist of 1940s who made artistic documentation of the

famine of Bengal, painted extensively on this theme and generated a form

out of this decay that made considerable imprint on his further

278

development. He looked towards beauty from these roots of dilapidation.

His forms were thus an amalgamation of the beauty and the void.

Govardhan Ash has been rediscovered in the context of his famine

watercolours of 1943. According to Sanjoy Mallik, thematically, he

remained rooted to his village surroundings, but in pictorial style and

treatment he exhibited a leaning towards the post-Impressionistic palette

combined with a brushwork rendered with expressionistic vigour. From a

point rendering of the ―Money lender‖ to the vigorous strokes in the

portrait of an old mendicant (―Musafir‖, 1947), he intended the forms to

correspond to psychological types. His leaning towards a post-

Impressionistic language not merely determined the brilliance of colours,

but also the allied possibility of going beyond simple visual sensations to

the realm of visions, suggesting the importance of an inner psychological

world in his creative endeavour, the haloed ―Naga Sanyasi‖ and the

―Pilgrim‖ of 1947 being two examples.

Prodosh Das Gupta was born in 1912 in Dhaka, now in

Bangladesh, and graduated from Calcutta University in 1932. Under the

manifesto of 'Art should be international and interdependent' he co-

founded the famed Calcutta Group in 1943. Prodosh Das Gupta was also

the leading sculptor of the Calcutta Group which held its first exhibition in

1943-1944. Considered as one of the prominent pioneers who emerged at

279

the juncture of India's Independence, Pradosh Das Gupta reacted strongly

against the decay that had set in modern life despite mankind's great

achievements in the field of technology. His works represent love, the

humane values and affection for fellow men. He built his sculptural forms

through the modeling technique, i.e., using clay. According to Prodosh

Das Gupta, ―I registered my protest against the famine of 1943, its social

repercussions and the imperialist war, in sculptural works like The

Bondage, Jai Hind, Mother India, and images of the famine stricken in

sculptural form. I have always believed in the supremacy of man.‖579

His studies in Paris gave his figures a romantic touch. However, his

return to India in 1940, added new shape and significance to these myriad

influences. His depiction of the horrors of the World War II and the

Bengal famine of 1943 made an impact in the second phase of his career.

Over a period of time, however, there crept in doubts about the emotional

excesses and probable sentimentalism in these works. In his own words,

"this led me to change my methods of treatment of material to a more

restrained order of basic forms, often instilled with and integrated to

themes from everyday life."580

The years 1946 to 1950 were the most

crucial years of his career during which he had to struggle to break free

579

Sarkar Nikhil, op. cit. p. 37.

580 http://www.indianartnews.com/

280

from the methods and techniques of pure academia that were ingrained

within him. The young Das Gupta, having recognised the basic truth about

organic form both from his Indian roots as well as from the great masters

who inspired him, tried to instil the same philosophy and formal quality

into his own work. It was during this period that some of his best-known

works, such as ‗Head & Torso,‘ ‗Toilet,‘ ‗First Born,‘ and ‗Pounding

Corn‘ took birth. His dabbling in abstraction began in his early years with

works like ‗Twisted Form‘ (bronze), ‗Cactus Family,‘ ‗Volume in Three

Masses,‘ and ‗Symphony in Curves‘ (Cement).

The Calcutta Group‘s work awakened the public interest in modern

art. They had made considerable strides in the Indian art world. In 1944

they organised an exhibition in Bombay, which was emerging as a centre

of modern art under the guidance of Europeans such as Vonleyden,

Schlesinger and Langhammer.

The Calcutta Group was encouraged by a few pioneer critics like

Prof Shahid Suhrawardy, Sudhindra Dutta and Bishnu Dey. The poets and

writers, who were closely associated with the Group and gave their

unstinted support, usually had leftist leanings in their political attitude.581

The Bombay exhibition of Calcutta Group created a stir among art critics

and connoisseurs.

581

Pran Nath, Contemporary Art in India, A Prespective, National Book Trust India, 2001, p. 64

281

Mulk Raj Anand, who came in contact with the Group in 1944, at

their first public exhibition, wrote about it thus: The exhibition of the

Calcutta Group showed that the younger Bengalis were all highly talented,

and that they were aware of crisis of Indian painting. But as they were all

individuals, who had got together in a group, their work fortunately,

proceeded in unique directions, without any subservience to the written

words of a manifesto. And if they achieved only a few pictures and

sculptures of great worth, they had shown tremendous courage in

confronting the conservatives with a new direction for creative art.582

Reacting to Calcutta Group's exhibitions, held in Bombay in 1944

and 1945, which aroused a great interest in Bombay artists, Rudolph Van

Leyden, the art critic of the Times of India, wrote: Bengal has exercised a

very strong influence on modern Indian art ever since Abanindranath

Tagore and his followers inspired the 'Indian Renaissance' movement

some forty years ago……we welcome this exhibition of the 'Calcutta

Group' which brings to Bombay the first specimen of modern Bengal art

since Jamini Roy's exhibition three years ago.583

Initially the Callcuta Grup was influenced by Western masters like

Picasso, Matise, Van Gogh, Vlaminck, Braque, Moore, and Brancusi. But

582

Anand, Mulk Raj,Prolegomena to Contemporary Indian Painting, Marg, 1944

583 Quoted in Mago, Pran Nath, Contemporary Art in India, A Prespective, National Book Trust India,

2001, p. 65

282

with the passage of time, these influences in most cases were integrated

into the artist's individual expression.

The artists of Calcutta Group tried to get over the nostalgic feeling

of the Bengal school and inspire a new ideology creating a new synthesis

between the East and the West, for which their forerunners—

Gagenendranath, Rabindranath and Jamini Roy had already paved the

way. But, as it was believed by the Group, it was only a spirit of adventure

-and more as a matter of individual exploration in the field without

formulating any collective effort to a new systematic re-organisation that

these stalwarts worked.584

They, however, opened the possibilities that, in

fact, helped in augmenting the resurgence of a new movement initiated by

the Calcutta Group. As Pradosh Das Gupta puts it: "The time to preoccupy

oneself with Gods and Goddesses was over. The artist could no longer be

blind to his age and surroundings, his people and society." But the Group

members, though deeply conscious of the human values and their

surroundings, were not given to create any propagandist art. For, as

Prodosh Das Gupta once said, "We never took a pledge to follow the path

of social realism. All we want is to understand life and interpret it in terms

of creative art. Indeed, we believe in humanism without any political

binding or direction. They looked at man in the totality of his existence,

not just his sorrows and sufferings, his fears and anxieties but his joys and

584

Mago, Pran Nath, Contemporary Art in India, A Prespective, National Book Trust India, 2001, p. 66

283

celebrations as well. In the use of art language, the group members sought

to synthesize content with experiments in form and were inspired to create

a fusion between developments in international art language and their own

traditions.‖585

This was no doubt a progressive and healthy outlook in art.

4:9 Progressive Art Group Bombay: Any great change in a nation's

civilisation begins in the field of culture. 1946 to 1950 was period of

significant change in the history of contemporary Indian art, even as much

as it was in the history of the country, politically. It was a period of

transition from one way of life to another, from the Colonial ethos to the

ethos of a free, independent people. In fact, it was a period of significant

development.

It can be claimed that the formation of the Calcutta Group and the

exhibition of Jamini Roy‘s work in Mumbai during the late 1940s were

among the sources of inspiration to artists in western India.

It was during this period the Progressive Artists group came into

existence. The artist‘s aid centre was started and Dr Mulk Raj Ananad

launched Marg the magazine of the Arts586

.

585

Gupta Pradosh Das, Smirithi Katha, Shilpakatha; Calcutta Group, Pratikshan Publications, 1986,

quoted in an essay by Ella Dutta, A manifesto of the human spirit On the trail of humanism, Search for

a self image, In ‘Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence’, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1997, p.

39.

586Founded in 1946 on the eve of independence, Marg surveyed classical and contemporary Indian art,

architecture, clothing, crafts, dance, and photography, but also reported on contemporary foreign art

and architecture, especially that of the United States and Europe.

284

The emergence of the Progressive Artists Group was a major factor

in bringing change in Modern Indian Art. It emerged as a blessing from

the blue.587

It was a successor to the Young Turk Movement at the Sir J. J.

School of Art. The leader of the Young Turks was P.T. Reddy. He derived

its inspiration from Kamal Ataturk‘s radicalization programme in Turky.

The other members of the group were Clement Baptista, Majeed, Bhople,

and M.K. Kulkarni. The young Turks wanted to embark on pastures new

after shaking off the influence of painters of earlier generations like M.V.

Dhurandhar, S. L. Haldankar and others.588

The Young Turks tried to emancipate themselves from the

formalism of the Royal Academy and the revivalism of the Ajanta frescos

and Moghul miniatures. But the movement started by these young Turks

faded out very quickly, as its protagonists left painting and took to other

vocations.589

The progressive Artists group fared much better because there

existed a lot of Camaraderie among its members. Self taught painters like

Ara and Hussain were alongside the rebel and enfant terrible, Francis

Newton, S. H. Raza, H. A. Gade and S. K. Baker, and K. K. Hebber.590

587

Jagmohan, Lalit Kala Contemporary, No. 28,New Delhi, p. 24

588 Jagmohan, Lalit Kala Contemporary, No. 28, p. 24

589 Lalit Kala Contemporary, No. 28, p. 24

590 See Plate 65 a

285

All these artists had some common views on art. Francis has written that

the PAG artsits dismissed ―Shantiniketan as too sentimental and Jamini

Roy as too unsophisticated.‖591

According to Jag Mohan, the exhibition at the Bombay Art Society

Salon of the work of the Progressive Artist Group is to be noted as a

landmark in the history of Bombay art activities.

Though the first exhibition of progressive Artists Group was held

in 1949, in the then Bombay city, the group came formally into existence

as early as 1947, in a meeting held on December 15th

. The arbitrary

selection at the exhibitions of the Bombay Art Society had prompted some

artists and critics to organize such a meeting. The persons who spoke at

this historical conclave included artists, Souza, Raza and Ara besides the

critic Rashid Hussain.592

The Progressive Artist Group was started when Ara‘s painting

―Independence Day Procession‖593

was rejected by the Art Society and

Francis Newton was considered as too proletarian in his paintings.594

In

protest, Bakre and Raza formed the group and began holding exhibitions

591

Ibid. p.24

592 Ibid.

593 See Plate No. 65 b

594 Jagmohan,The Progressive Artist Group, Lalit Kala Contemporary, No 28, New Delhi, 1979, p. 25

286

in the King‘s circle so that the non arty people could see.595

Souza,

exhorted that artists should get together to thrash out common problems

and initiate the development of a new national art, Ara demanded that

artists should have freedom, ‗svatantrata‘ for their expression and should

overthrow the living corpse of the worshippers of false art.596

According to Husain,

―We had our own parallel national movement. We were part of the

Progressive Artists Group; there were five or six painters in Mumbai and a

few in Calcutta. We came out to fight against two prevalent schools of

thought in those days, the Royal Academy, which was British-oriented,

and the revivalist school in Mumbai, which was not a progressive

movement. These two we decided to fight and we demolished them. The

movement to get rid of these influences and to evolve a language that is

rooted in our own culture was a great movement and one that historians

have not taken note of. It was important because any great change in a

nation's civilisation begins in the field of culture. Culture is always ahead

of other political and social movements.‖597

When the Progressive Artists Group was formed, there were only

six members in Mumbai. They used to go out and paste posters on the

walls, because their paintings were rejected by the Society in Mumbai,

whose patron was the governor. According to M. F. Hussain, it was like a

parallel freedom movement. Bhendre did a painting in 1942 on Quit India,

at the time of the Mumbai Congress session.

595

Ibid.p. 25

596 Ratan Parimoo and Nalini Bhagwat, Progressive Artists Group of Bombay: An Overview-The Spirit of

Late 1940s and Early 1950s, artetc. news & views, January 2012, issue no. 24.

597 M.F. Husain, An Artist and a movement, Frontline, vol. 14, No. 16, Aug. 1997

287

The title ‗Progressive‘ was inspired from the Progressive writers‘

movement which was started in Indian literature by the Marxist novelists,

poets and fellow travellers at a conference held in 1936598

. The PAG had

an anti-Imperialist outlook and the objective of ‗bridging the widening

gulf between the artists and the life of the people‘ was declared in the

short manifesto.599

Now the Progressive Artist Group has become a trenchant art

movement. It is not a school in the sense in which other schools of

paintings are known. Each member has his own technique and the only

‗ism‘ that the members have in common is their individualism. And what

is most characteristic about this group is the similarity it bears to the

medieval guild as such for it is more a trade union of artists with a

common approach to art, than anything else.600

The first group exhibition of the PAG was held at Bombay Art

Society‘s Salon at Rampart Row in 1949. The six founder members- Ara,

Souza, Raza, Husain, Gade, Bakre participated in this exhibition which

was opened by the celebrated author-critic Mulk Raj Anand, known for

his novels with leftist leanings. He commended the six ‗Progressives‘ as

598

Dalmia Yashodhara, op.cit.p. and Parimoo Ratan and Bhagwat Nalini, Progressive Artist Group of Bombay: An Overview, The Spirit of Late 1940s and Early 1950s, An Essay in Art etc News and Views, 2012

599 Ibid.

600 LKC, No 28, pp.24-25.

288

the ‗heralds of a new dawn in the world of Indian art‘601

. In their catalogue

they had used Samuel Butler‘s quotation as their motto, viz, ―young art

must be working out its own salvation from efforts in all fear and

trembling.‖602

Rudi Van Leyden‘s consistent exhibition reviews in Bombay during

the 1940s gave the air of expectation of something important to happen

from the young artists. His review of the PAG exhibition is both positive

as well as a record of a great historic moment. His review highlights that

the six artists formed a ‗distinct group‘ in spite of their very different

artistic approaches and tempers.603

The role of Leyden, with respect to the Progressive Artist Group

was much more diverse as he was instrumental in cultivating an attitude,

an awareness of the need of the time for renewed ideas and working

methods, of stressing on the urgency to move beyond the limited

nationalistic constraints to broadened spheres, a role of art, an artist, a

critic and recipients of criticism in the (then) contemporary society,

thereby guiding the nation towards modernism, which aimed at de-

601

Parimoo Ratan and Nalini Bhagwat, Progressive Artists Group of Bombay: An Overview, artetc. news & views, January 2012, issue no. 24.

602 Dalmia Yashodhara, The Making of Modern Indian Art, The Progressives, Oxford University Press,

2001, p. 46.

603 Leyden Rudi Von, ‘Artists’ Exhibition in Bombay, TheDistinct Group’, The Times of India, 9

th

July,1949.

289

shackling the present from the grip of sedated traditionalism towards

dynamic internationalism.

Leyden‘s mistrust in nationalistic sentiments and his notions of a

constructive nation were expressed in his write-up, ―What Free India

Means to Me,‖ Independence Supplement, The Times of India, August

1949, and ―Artists In The New Republic‖, Republic Day Supplement,

Times of India, 26 January, 1950, in which he defines the role of a

contemporary artist, not as an isolated practitioner but an individual aware

of his / her times,"the artist distils the spirit of his day..."604

Stressing on the needs of modernism, he encouraged the departure

from the redundant colonial modes like naturalism. This tug in the web at

a point, produced ripples elsewhere, nearly prophesying the emergence of

a highly charged group; Souza while formulating the manifesto of the

PAG galvanised similar opinions. The group with their anti-imperialist

outlook aimed at bridging the artists and common people, similar to the

manifesto of Die-Bruke, German Expressionist Group. Further according

to Leyden this ―distinct group‖, with the struggle to move beyond the

Victorian modes and with some of their deserved works rejected from the

annual salons (e.g. Independence Day Parade by Ara), had enough reason

to rebel. In the first official meeting of the PAG, held on 15th Dec 1947,

604

Leyden Rudolf Von, What Free India Means to Me, Independence Supplement, The Times of India, August 1949.

290

the critic, Rashid Husain, spoke strongly against the old orthodox critics.

Further, in a highly caustic manner Souza ridiculed the redundancy of

such bodies and declared that the artists had now chosen to work with

absolute freedom.605

Leyden describes that each of the artist had developed an individual

style. Ara‘s works had a sense of spontaneity and intuition and brilliant

pictorial imaginations, which Leyden compared to Peter Brueghel.

Gade‘s landscape and compositions had a strong Cezannia tilt. Raza‘s

fluid water-colour landscapes had a near Cubist composition. Bakre,

unlike commercial artists working on ‗life-like‘ sculptures, was working

to find expression through formal values. Husain emphasised on colour

while his forms remained deliberately vague and undefined. In case of

Souza, Leyden states that the importance was given more to the subject-

matter, and his experimental approach relied heavily on his volatile

temperament. The brute force of a nude image, his themes addressing the

predicament of man – of religion and sex seemed blasphemous to the

viewers, who were accustomed to works done in Victorian modes. As a

result their first group show in 1949 was met with heavy criticism, with

only few critics corroborating their voice. Leyden in his review mentioned

about the ―progressive offerings of these artists‖, who had moved beyond 605 Vrushali Dhage, P. A. G. and the Role of the Critics, artetc. news & views, Feburary 2012, issue no.

25

291

beautiful-looking paintings to the expressions of the strivings of their

generation606

.

Apparently, at the crucial occasion of the PAG exhibition, the

member artists frankly admitted that the ideology expressed in the

manifesto which was set at the time of formation of the Group, ‗was not

practicable‘. They confessed that ‗we have changed all the chauvinist

ideas and the leftist fanaticism which we had incorporated in our

manifesto at the inception of the group‘ and that ‗the gulf between the

people and the artists cannot be bridged‘. ‗Today we paint with absolute

freedom of contents and techniques that they were now governed by only

―sound principles of art‖ like aesthetic order, plastic coordination and

colour composition. We have no pretensions of making vapid revivals of

any schools of painting and sculpture to arrive at a vigorous synthesis.‘607

―The present exhibition turned out to be a modest shock to the other

artists and art lovers. Each one of the artists has developed in new

directions. The gentle Ara, for instance, who used to confine his subjects

to flowers and landscapes, has now come out with pictures that reveal his

social consciousness, what with pictures of prostitutes and gamblers and

beggars and lunatics. Bakre who used to be a hard realist in his sculptures

606

Vrushali Dhage, P. A. G. and the Role of the Critics, artetc. news & views, Feburary 2012, issue no. 25

607 F. N. Souze in the exhibition catalogue of Progressive Artist Group,7

th July, 1949.

292

has now gone into the regions of near Abstractionism, and Impressionist

Raza has gone into charming geometrical and cubist compositions‖608

.

―Francis Newton Souza has contributed a powerful self portrait in

which he has distorted his own anatomy and few other primitivist

paintings derived from ancient sculputure. Husain‘s paintings of children

and women done in an impressionist style with a rich colour sense are

bound to please anyone and Gade‘s Van Goghish landscapes with their

luminous yellows and brilliant greens distinguish him as a landscapist

with a difference, for he is good at both perspective and composition.

Bakre‘s sculptures are welcome in this land where sculpture was

once its best form of art expression. There are a few sculptures today, his

―Women Undressing‖ and ―Centaur‖ once seen can never be forgotten and

his plaster piece ―Mother‘s pride‖ should not be in a drawing room. It

should be a double life size tribute to mother hood adoring some maternity

hospital or the other.

―The Progressive Artist Group artists have done a commendable job

and it is left to the public of Bombay to recognise and appreciate their

work‖.609

608

LKC, No. 28.P. 25

609 LKC, No 28.p. 25

293

According A.R. Kannangi, (the art critic) Modern Art and its true

practioners in India are the members of the Progressive Artist Group.610

According to Samuel Butler (1835-1902) ....all the noblest arts hold

in perfection but for a very little moment. They soon reach a height from

where they begin to decline, and when they have began to decline it is a

pity that they cannot be knocked on the head; for an art is like a living

organism better dead than dying. There is no way of making an aged art

young again; it must be born anew and grown up from infancy as a new

thing, working out its own salvation from all effort in all fear and

trembling.‖611

In his opening speech, Dr Mulk Raj Anand sounded an optimistic

note on the progress made by the members of the Group. Elaborating on

the motto of the Group, which was based on a statement by Samuel Butler

(1835-1912), he said that a dead art was better than a dying art; that dead

art was like a halter round the artist's neck and felt that the new art would

deal with social content.612

According to Rudolf Von Leyden, ―They are not satisfied with the

readymade conventions: neither of the academic western nor of the

610

Ibid.

611 Erewhon: The views of the Erewhonians concerning death,www.marxists.org/reference/archive/butler-samuel/1872/.../ch13.htm

612 Mago Pran Nath, opcit. P. 67-68

294

academic traditional schools.... It can also not be said that they simply

exchanged the conventions of the old schools for the obscure code of

modern painting. Those who have followed the work of these artists over

the past years will know of the struggle, the experiments, and the trials

that lie behind the considerable achievement which the exhibition

represents.‖613

In the works of Raza, Gade, Bakre and Husain, a gradual conquest

of subject matter by purely formalistic and colouristic preoccupation was

noticed. Though Souza too strove for formal values, his subject matter

occupied a much larger place in his imagination. Ara was the most direct

painter of the Group. As described by a critic, 'his equipment consists of

human sympathy and an extraordinary interest in every form of life.'614

Souza in an introductory note to the exhibition stated thus:

I do not quite understand now, why we still call our Group

'Progressive'. Not that the most retrogressive institutions call

themselves so, but we have changed all the chauvinist ideas and

the leftist fanaticism which we had incorporated in our manifesto

at the inception of the Group: 'To bring about a closer

understanding and contact between different sections of the

artists' community and the people....' We found this in the course

of working impossibility, because there is not only a permanent

rift between sections of artists, between Meissonier and Whistler,

613

Leyden Rudolf Von,The Distinct Group In Bombay, The Times of India, 9th

July,1949.

614 Oscar Wilde. The Soul of Man under Socialism, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/wilde-

oscar/soul-man/

295

Munnings and Picasso, Achrekar and Jamini Roy; but the gulf

between the so-called 'people' and the artist cannot be bridged.

Art will, as long as it remains, be esoteric. It can be

utilitarian-functional manufactures of house-hold commodities;

didactic-illustrational for school books or party journals; socialist

putative art of the Soviet Union; and religious—of the sort we see

today, painted clay Ganapatis and blond operatic Christs—but

then it is mercenary, pedagogic, political and devotional, but

never pure intrinsic 'Art'.

Today we paint with absolute freedom for contents and

techniques, almost anarchic; save that we are governed by one or

two sound elemental and eternal laws, of aesthetic order, plastic

co-ordination and colour composition. We have no pretensions of

making vapid revivals of any school or movement in art. We

have studied the various schools of painting and sculpture to

arrive at a vigorous synthesis.615

To return to Samuel Butler, the Erewhonian artists he says, were not

only taught to paint but also to sell their works. Since we have never had

such training, we have got the secret ambition of discovering Butler's

`Erewhon' which is anagrammatically, 'No Where'.

Whether or not a vigorous synthesis of various schools was

achieved by the Progressive Group, it is difficult to say. The Group as

such practically disintegrated soon after its joint exhibition with the

Calcutta Group held at Calcutta in 1951. By the end of 1951, F. N .Souza

and S. K. Bakre moved to London and S. H. Raza to Paris. According to

H. A. Gade, who had personally taken the Group's exhibition to Calcutta,

it was well received by the art lovers as well as artists like Ramkinkar

Vaij, Prodosh Das Gupta and others who appreciated the experimental

615

F. N. Sauz, op. cit.

296

endeavour of the Bombay artists. The affairs of the Group were

subsequently conducted by Gade and its annual exhibitions held at the

Artists Aid Fund Centre, also known as the Bombay Art Society Salon at

6, Rampart Road, Bombay, till 1954.

The members of the Progressive Artists Group, who had hardly at-

tained any proficiency in the then prevalent British academic style,

seemed essentially to be against the continuance of this particular alien

idiom, though they also rebelled against spiritless Indianization'. For they

merely chose to work in the new alien idioms of European modern art,

rejecting the British academic and the Western Classical styles. But then

they were still under the spell of Western influence in their works as there

seemed no inclination on their part to seek inspiration from any traditional

Indian source. According to Baburao Sadwelkar, they had no positive

manifesto and every member of the Group was inspired by one or the

other modern European painters—Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse,

Picasso, Braque and Rouault. The Group, after a few exhibitions,

gradually disintegrated.

4:10 Bombay Group: After the disintegration of the Progressive Artists

Group, a new group emerged under the name of Bombay Group.616

The

Bombay Group was formed by another group of artists including some of

616

Dalmia Yashodra, op. cit. pp. 181-182.

297

the former members of the Progressive Artists Group, K. H. Ara and H. A.

Gade under the leadership of K. K. Hebbar. Others who joined the Group

included S. D. Chavda, D. G. Kulkarni, V. S. Gaitonde, Mohan Samant, S.

B. Palsikar, Baburao Sadwelkar and Harkrishan Lall.

The Group was active in the years 1957-62 and presented six big

exhibitions which were well received. Seeking inspiration from Ajanta

and the Indian miniature paintings, the artists initially tried to synthesise

Indian and Western elements with a contemporary sensibility, but

gradually moved towards abstraction and simplification of form in a

pictorial manner, each in his own characteristic manner617

. For example,

Hebbar chose to paint events and objects from everyday life, organising

them into unusual compositions, and developed the textural aspect of

colour; Palsikar developed a new `Indianised' pictorial style with a strange

mystic approach; Samant aimed at an 'esoteric content with the non-

structural approach of composition', Gade 'developed architectonic

arrangements with vibrating textures'; Sadwelkar rooted his themes in

modern poetry and the scientific achievement of conquering space;

Harkrishan Lall painted landscapes in a bold but well organised

expressionistic style; and Gaitonde 'worked as a recluse and was strongly

617

Mago Pran Nath, op. cit. pp. 70- 71.

298

influenced by the paintings of Paul Klee', adding to his work increasing

elements of abstraction charged with vibrant colour and textual effects.618

The Bombay artists, by and large, though proficient in drawing and

working techniques, endeavoured to emphasize abstract expressionism

and other modern idioms. Some others who made significant contributions

included Akbar Padamsee, G. M. Solegaonkar, G. M. Hazarnis, Jehangir

Sabawala, Tyeb Mehta, Badri Narayan, Homi Patel and Ambadas.

4:11 Delhi Silpi Chakra: Shortly after India‘s Independence, on January

30, 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated.―And then

came a bolt from the blue,‖ as the artist Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal writes.619

In Sanyal‘s reminiscences, the narrative of Gandhi‘s death is entangled

with yet another narrative – the narrative of the formation of the Silpi

Chakra, a Delhi-based artists‘ collective. Writing about Gandhi‘s death,

Sanyal reminiscences: ―It was not immediately known who had committed

this foul murder. No sane man, Hindu or Muslim, could have gunned

down this gem of a man. Day in and day out Gandhi preached non-

violence and communal harmony. He was mentally hurt and wounded at

618

Ibid. pp. 70- 71.

619 Sanayal,Bhabesh Chandra, The Vertical Woman: Reminiscences of B. C. Sanyal, Volume II (New

Delhi:National Gallery of Modern Art, 1998), 6.

299

the meaningless bloodshed that freedom brought to the subcontinent of

India. So, who on earth had thought of such a stupid, mad act!‖620

Although most of the artists who had moved from Lahore to Delhi

in the wake of the Partition became members of the All India Fine Arts

and Crafts Society (AIFACS) in Delhi, their association with it did not last

long. Briefly the reasons were that the affairs of AIFACS, by and large,

were planned and controlled by non-professional members who had no

artistic commitment.

The few artists in the inner circle of AIFACS followed, rather than

provided, the leadership. As a result there was growing discontent among

working artists. This phenomenon was not peculiar to AIFACS alone; well

established art societies in Bombay and Calcutta also suffered the same

problem. Some of the members attempted to bring about changes in the

working system of AIFACS with the co-operation of other members from

within, but to no avail.

B. C. Sanyal, Kanwal Krishna, K. S. Kulkarni, Dhan Raj Bhagat,

Pran Nath Mago and a few others sought a meeting with those artists of

AIFACS who sat on the fence, to resolve the issue. When this failed, it

was decided to place certain resolutions at the next general body meeting

620

.Sanayal,Bhabesh Chandra, The Vertical Woman: Reminiscences of B. C. Sanyal, Volume II (New Delhi:National Gallery of Modern Art, 1998), 6.

300

of AIFACS, demanding more representation to working artists on various

committees and for more meaningful programmes and facilities for the

upliftment of art. It must be remembered that AIFACS was then the only

organisation which the Delhi based artists could lean on for

encouragement and furtherance of their interests. There were no

commercial art galleries of the like we have now.

But the general body meeting of AIFACS in March 1949

overflowed with people unconnected with art, and none of resolutions by

the protesting artists went through. One of the resolutions contained a

recommendation to the government to consider the newly established All

India Association of Fine Arts of Bombay as the central or national

organisation for the sustenance and promotion of the Indian arts. Kekoo

Gandhi, the then secretary of the Association, had especially attended the

meeting to muster support for the resolution. But to no avail.

Krishna, Kulkarni and Mago, who were then the members of the

Council of the AIFACS (1948-49), submitted their resignations on the

spot, and went on to lay the foundation of the Delhi Silpi Chakra on 25

March 1949, together with Sanyal and Bhagat.

It was clear that unless artists came together on the basis of their

professional interest and needs, free of the benevolently patronising

control of non-professionals, however well intentioned, no organisation

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could really become meaningful. Self-reliance and self-respect are

synonymous for an artist.

Other reasons apart, the emergence of Silpi Chakra also symbolised

the aspiration of young progressive artists in seeking something different

from what had been a popular trend in the works of painters of the Bengal

School.

According to B. C. Sanyal ―Keeping this objective in mind we

evolved a method of work. The step we took was to make known the

shortcomings of the system by contrast, through effective program and

action.‖621

Thus, if Gandhian politics had engendered as specific kind of

art praxis in early 20th-century India, one that exceeded the conventional

strictures and closures of the modern art world, Gandhi‘s assassination in

1948 served as yet another ethical imperative. It was this imperative that

led to the formation of the Silpi Chakra, founded in March 1949 by

Sanyal.

If F. N. Souza, in the very first exhibition of the Bombay

Progressive Artists Group, declared ―Art‖ as inherently ―esoteric,‖ beyond

the ―utilitarian,‖ and attempts to reach out to ―the so-called ‗people‘‖ as

―leftist fanaticism,‖ the Chakra provided distinctly different notions of

both artistic praxis and the role of modern art in a post- Independence

621

Sanayal, B.C., opcit. P. 6

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public sphere.622

Tacitly positioning them against the Bombay

Progressive Artists Group, the Chakra rejected the ideal of ―art for art‘s

sake‖ as ―a drug suitable only for the lotus eaters.‖623

It is precisely this concern with the political that distinguished the

Chakra from the Bombay Progressive, a group that is now demarcated as

India‘s first true avant-garde. It was not aesthetic concerns but a strong

belief in using art to transform the social that brought the Chakra together,

According to Amarnath Sehgal, the Chakra thus attempted to articulate a

new model of avant-gardism, an art praxis that was not centered on a

cohesive ideology of stylistic preoccupations, but one that was premised

on political action. An understanding of the Chakra must then be located

within the frameworks of political action rather than purely aesthetic

engagements.

The collective scripted a manifesto even before they managed to

secure an address or funds to support their activities. Taking ―Art

Illuminates Life‖ as its motto, the Chakra declared: The group recognizes

that art as an activity must not be divorced from life; that the art of the

nation must express the soul of its people and ally with the forces of

progress. The group recognized artists had to come together to work

622

4. F. N. Souza ,in Progressive Artists Group.

623 5. Sanyal, The Vertical Woman, 13.

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towards the progress of art and through art, help build a virile national

culture and brighter life in the country.624

The signatories to this manifesto

included Sanyal, Kanwal Krishna, K. S. Kulkarni, P. N. Mago, Dhanraj

Bhagat and Dinkar Kaushik. Very soon the group had over thirty members

including Devayani Krishna, Harkrishan Lall, Jaya Appasamy, Amarnath

Sehgal, Avinash Chandra, Rajesh Mehra, Bishamber Khanna, Shankar

Pillai, Satish Gujral, and Ratna Fabri, among others.

The membership of the Chakra was restricted to working artists, but

writers, musicians, poets, critics and dramatists, who shared the Chakra's

views were welcome to associate with its activities.

The Chakra believed that art, a creative adventure, should be the

total expression of life, keeping pace with time and environment. Art was,

of course, mainly the artist's business, but its purpose was to

communicate; its life-blood was the responses of its receptive audience,

whether it was their condemnation or praise, but never their apathy. The

artists of the Chakra, essentially the refugees in Delhi torn from their

moorings by communal storms, had their aesthetic seekings sustained by

vitality and self-criticism.

624

Pran Nath Mago, “Introduction,” in Delhi Silpi Chakra: The Early Years, Exhibition catalog 1997 (New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art, 1997),8

304

With faith in the transformative powers of art, this group sought a

wider audience, beyond New Delhi‘s elitist art world through free

lectures, exhibitions, and art demonstrations on the streets of the city, for

example at Connaught Circus, Gole Market, and Karol Bagh. While

Connaught Circus, with its wide-open arenas, parks, and promenades, was

the heart of New Delhi, Gole Market and Karol Bagh, with their bustling

bazaars and congested streets, had become home to the many dispossessed

during Partition. The Chakra‘s choice of ―mohallas [neighborhoods]

where art and culture had never penetrated‖ as appropriate spaces for the

display of art was perhaps strategic.625

Attracting a wide audience ranging

from laborers, shopkeepers, and middleclass housewives to bureaucrats,

intellectuals, and students, these public meetings in the early years of the

Chakra were only the beginning of a long commitment to popularize

modern art, making it accessible to a wider audience. Sanyal, the force

behind the collective, had been a staunch supporter of the 1930‘s and

1940‘s leftist cultural movements.

The Bengal Famine of 1943 had already left an indelible mark on

Sanyal. The displacement of millions by the Partition further compelled

him to repeatedly portray the disenfranchised body to create an

625

Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal, cited in Pran Nath Mago, “Sanyal: An Art Pioneer from Lahore” in Petals of Offering: An Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures, and Graphics, Felicitating Prof. B. C. Sanyal on hisNinetieth Birthday, Exhibition catalog, April 1992 (New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1992), 13.

305

iconography for the new nation. The Chakra attempted to transform

modern art into a cultural form through which the community could

visualize its own self. Of course, the Chakra was not the first collective to

engage with a larger public sphere.

Sanyal, who had been closely associated with Jamini Roy, writes

about Roy‘s attempts to popularize modern art by making his paintings

affordable for a middleclass audience, as well as his forays into stage

design for public theatres in 1930s Calcutta.626

Number of the Chakra

artists had also been art students in Calcutta when Nandalal Bose was

asked by Gandhi to design posters for the 1937 Indian National Congress

session in Haripura. Over subsequent years, artists not only designed and

decorated pavilions, but also created posters, pamphlets, and book

illustrations in conjunction with the annual meetings of the Indian

National Congress.

Thus, a close affiliation between modern art and political action was

already established. The Chakra‘s public interventions need to be located

within this very history. This notion of artistic practice as a form of

cultural activism ran like a leitmotif in the careers of many of the Chakra

artists, beginning as early as 1937. The career of Sanyal is a good

626

Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal, cited in Pran Nath Mago, “Sanyal: An Art Pioneer from Lahore” in Petals of Offering: An Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures, and Graphics, Felicitating Prof. B. C. Sanyal on hisNinetieth Birthday, Exhibition catalog, April 1992 (New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1992), 117.

306

example. After a formal training at the Government College of Arts and

Crafts, Calcutta, Sanyal had joined the Mayo School of Art, Lahore and

was given charge of the commercial painting and modelling departments.

However, in 1937, following a conflict with the then Principal,

Samarendranath Gupta, Sanyal resigned from his position to set up the

Lahore School of Fine Art. Christened the ―Lahore underground‖ by

contemporary newspapers, the School provided an alternative support

system to artists who functioned beyond the colonial patronage of the

Mayo School. The School was inaugurated with an exhibition of Punjab

art – the largest the city had seen.

Apart from classes taught by Sanyal and his colleagues, for example

Dhanraj Bhagat, Roop and Mary Krishna, the School began holding

exhibitions of artists from all over India as a move towards generating

conversation among art practitioners across the country. Some of the

artists displayed in the exhibitions included Sudhir Khastagir, Paritosh

Sen, and Kanwal Krishna. Beyond the immediate world of practicing

artists, the many who frequented the School included art critics O. C.

Gangooly and Charles Fabri, Marxist intellectuals Rajani Palme Dutt and

Ajay Ghosh, Progressive writers Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Muhammad Abbas,

as well as performing artists Uday Shankar and Norah Richards.

307

Needless to say, the intellectual ferment at the School was charged

with Marxist ideals to the point that the Lahore branch of the Friends of

Soviet Union (a radical leftist cultural organization) held its weekly

meetings at the School‘s premises. Going beyond its role merely as an art

center, the School had become a nucleus for the progressive, anti

imperialist, and leftist intellectuals of Lahore, as Swatantra Prakash, a

student at the School in the 1930s, remembered. Simultaneously, Sanyal

encouraged workshops with school children and in his autobiography

mentions the great joy he felt when Lahore‘s conservative families sent

their daughters to his school.627

It was here that Sanyal, Bhagat, and their colleagues first

articulated the politics of what would later become the Chakra. By 1947,

most artists associated with the School had moved to New Delhi. The

group‘s first formal exhibition took place at the New Delhi Freemason‘s

Hall in November 1949. The Kailash Carpet Company, a neighboring

carpet shop at Connaught Place, offered their carpets for the venue.

Similarly, local merchants funded the exhibition screens and lighting

equipment required to convert the Hall into a suitable space for a formal

627

9. Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal, The Vertical Woman: Reminiscences of B. C. Sanyal, Volume I (New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art, 1998), 58

308

exhibition. This was indeed an extraordinary moment in the city‘s urban

public culture.

In the same year, the Chakra opened the first commercial gallery in

India when Ram Chand Jain, who ran a framing shop at Connaught Place,

New Delhi, offered a part of his premises for a permanent gallery. In spite

of limited commercial success, Jain‘s venture (now the Dhoomimal

Gallery) filled a lacuna in Delhi‘s art world. Writing on the occasion of

the inauguration of the gallery, Sanyal stated, ―The Art Gallery should

serve the dual purpose of educating public opinion on art and provide a

means towards the artists‘ economic self-sufficiency. The Art Gallery

aims to serve the purpose of a link between art and the people.‖628

The Silpi Chakra Gallery functioned here until the Ministry of

Rehabilitation offered the group a space at Shankar Market in 1957.

Although not intentional on the part of the Ministry, it was perhaps

appropriate that a group, which had strategically sought out the bazaar as a

space for modern art, was given its own space in a bazaar best known as a

wholesale textile market. Much like the Lahore School of Art, here the

group started holding regular exhibitions, screenings of films, lectures,

and cultural events, actively involving the city‘s intellectuals, such as the

628

Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal, The Vertical Woman, Volume I (New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art, 1998),p. 8

309

art critic and historian Charles Fabri, the architect Habib Rahman, and the

dancer Indrani Rahman, among others. Simultaneously, a library was set

up. To support itself, the Chakra provided art works on rent and also had

easy installment plans for buyers who could not otherwise afford art. Such

interventions in post-Independence Delhi‘s public sphere were attempts to

―generate an art environment‖ conducive to making modern art a part of

everyday life.629

The paintings were sold to university teachers, doctors, lawyers,

writers, actors, musicians. To those who could not afford to make a

straight purchase, works were even offered on hire-purchase. This

enlarged the circle of its patrons. The Chakra's vibrant existence lasted

almost till the mid-1960, after which it gradually became inactive.

The Chakra artists, with their fresh enthusiasm and new styles of

expression—generally inspired from the mannerisms in the modern art

movement in the West—did glamorise the younger artists. But there was

also a deep interest among man Chakra artists to relate their work to the

spirit of traditional Indian art. The partition also gave a new dimension to

their work as they had recently passed through an upheaval of social

changes and were given to include social realities in their work which

629

Sanayal,Bhabesh Chandra, “Art and Life in India since Independence,” in Joseph James ed. Art and Life in India: Last Four Decades (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 1989), 116-120

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would have ordinarily been confined to the new formal language of the

Western art movement.

The Delhi Silpi Chakra and its influence in other parts of the

country certainly were attributed to the moorings of some of the artists in

the art scene of Lahore. Only the scene had shifted. The new trends, new

tendencies or new ideas that had inspired the Lahore artists were

continued even in Delhi. From here the result of the Chakra's endeavours

were presented to an all-India audience through displays in Calcutta and in

November, 1958 in Bombay. These evoked a great deal of interest in the

Chakra's activities among artists and critics in both these cities.

The art critic of the Times of India, Bombay wrote in its issue of De-

cember 12, 1958:

The Bombay public in general and the city artists in particular

ought to be grateful to Mr. P. A. Narielwala, K. K. Hebbar,

Dr Mulk Raj Anand, Mr J. D. Gondhlekar, S. Chavda and the

inevitable K. H. Ara, for sponsoring the Delhi Silpi Chakra

exhibition at the Jehangir Gallery. Opened by the art patron

and former art critic, Mr. R. V. Leyden this exhibition of 46

paintings and sculptures by 16 artists of Delhi could be an

eye-opener in our art-conscious public.

The role of Silpi Chakra artists, by infusing social significance in

their creative expression, had been dynamic and made a meaningful

contribution to the growth of contemporary art in India. It today stands as

an event that has assumed a significant historical importance.

Chapter-V

Conclusion

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Conclusion

Works of art were created many thousand years before the invention

of writing. The works of art were our chief source of information

concerning pre-historic and ancient people. The most primitive decoration

is usually produced by simple and appropriate technique. ―The oldest

human art probably consisted of floral gathering, found objects and skin

marking.‖

Art is the best mode of expression of one‘s mental and emotional

state. When we express our feelings, thought or idea, we want that it

should also be communicated also, and art serves this purpose. It is a

mode for communication. Mere expression is not art. To be called art,

one‘s expression must be communicated also. Here communication means

to publicize one‘s ideas, thought and feeling. If we express our thought,

feelings, ideas on canvas or in any other form but do not make it public, it

won‘t be art. If a person writes a poem (in this way he is expressing

himself) but does not make it public, how can others know his feelings.

Though he is expressing his ideas but not communicating them, it will not

be art. Art is both expression and communication. As a human being we

always want to share our personal experience with others and we are also

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interested in the personal experiences of others. Art serves the same

purpose.

Architecture, sculpture and paintings are the three great forms of art

which appeal to the spirit through the eyes, painting being the oldest. The

art of painting is as old as human beings are. It is one of the oldest art

forms which even the primitive man knew.

India has produced great art since the ancient time, the earliest

known paintings have been found on the walls of caves in northern India.

Painted in red ochre, they represent animal hunts and so resemble similar

scenes found in the Palaeolithic caves of Spain that archaeologists believe

the two to be contemporary. Traditionally art was made for the purpose of

ritual, contemplation or delectation.

Even today, the art of painting is a part of our life. Paintings adorn

the walls of our homes, or are made for rituals, or are a mode of publicity,

etc. ―Paintings are used to enrich the walls of our living quarters and also

to preserve the likeness of members of our families. Similarly, paintings

are used to commemorate events of social importance and to embellish

public buildings.

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Due to frequent invasions, unrest and turmoil, art flourished in India

in many different levels- from temples and the courts of the Maharajas and

Nawabs, down to village and tribes.

Paintings by their very nature, did not survive the onslaught of time

except in the frescoes of the Ajanta caves, painted by Buddhist monks.

With the arrival of mughals in India during sixteen century, Indian

painting evolved into a breathtaking genre. The Mughals brought with

them Persian court artists. Under the patronage of early Mughal Emperor a

remarkable synthesis took place between their imported taste and Indian

sensibility. This style spread to other princely courts and resulted in

Mughal- Rajput miniature paintings, which are considered to be the most

beautiful images ever created.

By the nineteenth century, the decline of the imperial Mughal

dynasty and other local courts had led to the loss of patronage for the

traditional artist. Due to the gradual disintegration of the Mughal dynasty

and the ambitious art policy of the British Empire the academic art spread

rapidly in colonial India.

After East India Company gained a foothold in Bengal in 1757, the

art situation gradually began to change. The Company painters received

instruction in European drawing. Painters from Patna and Murshidabad,

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who came to Calcutta in search of work, turned out water colours in the

English manner. The East India Company employed artists for purpose of

documentation. The Company artists did topographical, architectural, and

natural history drawings. Thus the British, who now ruled India, were able

to stem this decline for a while by employing artists to execute portraits,

picturesque views, ethnographic and natural history themes.

With the advent of Europeans and, more specifically, the British,

new developments began in the field of painting. During the latter half of

the eighteenth century, the paintings of Indian artists attracted the attention

of the English traders at many places. The East India Company‘s

merchants began to procure items of Indian arts and crafts.

Simultaneously, interested persons among them drew the attention of the

Indian artists to the technique of water-colour painting. Artists were

required to depict Indian life and scenes but in a medium of the foreigner‘s

liking.

In these circumstances, artists were required to imitate the English

style of painting. The artists worked to satisfy the needs of their new

masters for some economic gain and were known as Company Painters.

When combined, the Western technique and the Indian form brought

about a synthetic style.

315

There was a blend of traditional elements from existing miniature

style with a more Western treatment of perspective, volume and recession.

Most of the paintings were small, following the Indian miniature tradition;

however, the paintings of plants and birds (natural history paintings) were

usually life size. Company art flourished at the main British settlements of

Calcutta, Madras, and Delhi, Lucknow, Patna and the Maratha court of

Thanjavur.

Portraits, landscapes, and scenes of Indian people, dancers and

festivals were painted. Series of figures of different castes or trades were

particular favourites, with an emphasis on differences in costume. Another

popular subject was architecture, usually done in a detailed and frontal

style more like that of an architectural draughtsman. Mostly, paper was

used for the paintings, but sometimes paintings were made on ivory,

especially those from Delhi. The works were mostly kept in portfolios or

albums rather than displayed on walls.

The new ruling class could not assume the role of Thesaurus of

Indian art. Officers, officials and merchants, the British in India were not

the type of people who develop an independent aesthetic judgment. Indian

art was utterly strange to their whole background, was collected, if at all,

without understanding of its forms, its spirit its subjects, collected not so

much for its intrinsic beauty than as souvenirs of a career which they

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sentimentally loved because of its wealth, or quaint exotic' experiences,

bought at the price of many sacrifices and hardships. But as long as they

were in India, they would rigorously avoid anything that might efface their

identity, keeping their houses as "English" as the social rituals which at

home were a matter of convenience and comfort, here a distinction of

caste. When they really needed art, they ordered it from `home' or

employed artists who had come thence. To them Indian art was a bazar

bargain for the moment of returning home, no more.

The short-lived school of Company painting, which combined

English water colour and Indian miniature styles, however, merely

postponed the approaching end of traditional art, rather than averting it

altogether.

Art resurfaced in the 1850s in an entirely different context, as a new

class of artists stepped into the vacuum left by the demise of the traditional

ones. The restoration of art was due in part to the Western Art Schools in

the three Presidency capitals, Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, founded

privately to train artisans but soon taken over by the government,

following the accusation by William Morris, Owen Jones, George

Birdwood and other champions of art manufactures, that government

neglect had caused the decline of Indian applied arts. The background to

their criticism was the Great Exhibition of 1851, in London, which had

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revealed the strength of traditional Indian manufacture in as much as it

had exposed the undistinguished quality of English industrial arts such as

carpets, wallpapers and furniture. Due to the establishment of European

art institution the meaning and function of art in Indian society changed.

Traditional artisans were replaced by enterprising individual artist, art

societies taking over the functions of aristocratic patrons, and art schools

as agents of the British empire seeking to inculcate ‗good taste‘ in its

subjects.

In reaction, Indian art life began to stir again. It was not yet even the

beginning of a new national art, but at least an interpretation of Indian life

and vision through Indian eyes. The champion of this first renaissance was

Raja Ravi Varma. Ravi Varma, tried to re-establish Indian art through

Western methods, techniques, principles and traits. He studied the

technique of oil painting from the famous European portrait painter,

Theodore Jenson. Ravi Varma tried to reproduce Indian life and scenes as

well as the traditional mythological subject matter in oil painting in the

Western style. Ravi Varma employed this new medium in painting Indian

mythological themes which at once attained wide recognition and through

oleographs became popular throughout the country. Ravi Varma is

considered as modern among traditionalists and a rationalist among

moderns. He provided a vital link between the traditional Indian art and

318

the contemporary, between the Tanjaur School and Western Academic

realism. He brought Indian painting to the attention of the larger world.

His paintings enjoyed immense popularity and oil paint were the

favorite decoration of the Hindu lower middle class. His paintings got

recognition even in international exhibitions in Vienna and Chicago. In the

days of his greatest success traditional Indian art was practically dead and

officially approved European art had reached its lowest ebb. Ravi Varma,

had a good sense of colour and could be poetic in a quiet way. He has

done good portraits. But his fame rests on his mythological and epic

paintings. He assimilated western technique to articulate Indian subjects

by means of which he painted images of God. The very fact that his

pictures became very popular shows how much they reflected the

sentimental religiosity and ideals of his time. Nevertheless, it will always

stand to his credit that he re-introduced Indian subjects, not as exotic

curiosities seen by foreigners, but as sacred national ideals and visions, at

a time when the Indian upper class aped the West.

Raja Ravi Verma was among the first artists in the 19th Century to

introduce a radical change by focusing on themes of Indian mythology and

literature. He did this by resurrecting classical Indian sources from the

Mahabharat and from Kalidasa‘s Play, and by combining this with

European techniques of realism in colour, composition & perspective.

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Varma‘s Contribution has been far – reaching. He awakened a national

feeling or consciousness through his chosen medium, projected India into

rarified realms of high class art, and for the first time elevated the Indian

artist to a position of dignity. He made the outside world more acutely

aware of the infinite variety and incredible charm that this ancient land has

to offer, an Indianism which survived extended alien influences, The most

profound service he rendered, was to invest the Hindu pantheon of gods

and goddesses with face, figure and forms and to enable them to find

places in the hearts and homes of the poor and rich.

Verma‘s paintings gained a huge national popularity partly because

he was able to cater the sentiment of the masses by painting theatrical

presentation of Hindu mythological subjects, and partly due to his

ingenious marketing strategies for starting a printing press in Bombay in

1894, which made it possible to make as many copies of his paintings as

was demanded. And soon mass-produced oleographs got even more

multiplied in the form of bazaar prints and calendar art anticipating new

methods of cultural dissemination, and the fact anybody could now have

access to art, is tantamount to the Industrial urban ambition of modernity.

Raja Ravi Varma‘s major contribution lies in his history paintings of

ancient Indian epics and classical literary works. He meticulously learned

the Victorian dialect of salon art, especially the skill of oil painting, and

320

articulated Indian subjects, which are both conspicuously different from

the Western cannon and at the same time convincingly modern.

Toward the end of the 19th century, however, traditional Indian art

had been well re-established; Mughal miniatures just began to be

appreciated, a decade later to be followed by Rajput (i.e. mainly Pahari)

miniatures; the Ajanta murals, up till now known only in a few very poor

drawings, were at last published in a fairly satisfactory manner and

aroused a storm of enthusiasm. This was the achievement of the Bombay

School of Arts under Griffiths. Its next principal, Gladstone Solomon,

tried to introduce also an Indian figure style; unfortunately it never

succeeded in catching the characteristic movements and impressions of

Indian people, not to mention the spirit of India, A parallel effort was

made in the Calcutta School of arts by E. B. Havell, the great propagandist

and first ideologist of Indian art. He tried to encourage a new national art,

without imposing a special style.

E. B. Havell, through his experience draws the conclusion that the

Western art could never prosper in India. He believed that painting in

India must remain Indian in spirit even when it adopted western

techniques of execution, It was due to his sincere efforts that the new art

movement started in India for the revival of the lost values. With his

efforts there emerged distinct-school of Indian painting that came to be

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known as the modern school of artists. The pioneer of the new school was

Abanindranath Tagore. His work was twofold, to rediscover the best in the

Indian art of the ancient and medieval eras and to regenerate art in its

modern setting. Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of the Bengal school

was the first to evolve a typical Indian Style, characterized by a delicacy

of line and color and lyrical romanticism. The "Indian style" that emerged

soon spread throughout the country and the Bengal school assumed a

national character.

The art of Bengal School is closely linked with the art of

Abanindranath Tagore. The evolving course of his experiments and

achievements is indicative of the changing spirit of his time. He found the

Western techniques that he learned from his European teachers, Charles L

Palmer and Olinto Ghilardi, in the late nineteenth century, rather

restrictive. He began to search for inspiration in the traditional schools of

painting like the Mughal and the Rajput. While experimenting and

assimilating their techniques and forms, he came in contact with Okakura

Kakuzo and the two Japanese painters, Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida

Shunro, who came to India on Okakura's initiative. The idea was to work

together and absorb techniques and approach of each other's art. The result

was the discovery of 'wash' technique. Abanindranath had found a novel

322

method—a fusion of Indian and Japanese mannerisms to which he

responded spontaneously.

Thus Abanindranath's artistic outlook widened and he experimented

with Chinese and Japanese inspirations. But especially Ajanta proved a

revelation. Like the European classicists a century earlier, he tried to distil

from those murals the formula for an authoritative, always valid and thus

unsurpassable national style, even working our detailed model books for

every part of the body, every position, every angle of vision. He supported

his ideas with references from the Sanskrit treatises of the late Gupta

period and of the Middle Ages. And he doted on Mughal miniatures. Thus

he became the father of a national art revival and art ideology and

educated a vast following of enthusiastic and gifted disciples. His most

important successor was Nandalal Bose who, as a member of Lady

Herringham's team of copyists, in 1909-12, had become intimately

acquainted with the technique and expression of the Ajanta murals. Later

on, Nandalal Bose was to become the principal of the art school of

Rabindranath's Santiniketan. What Abanindranath had proclaimed, he

achieved. But he went further, starting on an intensive study also of folk

art. His creations are vigorous and interesting, but when compared with

the ancient originals, they often look simply absurd. For ancient Indian art

was based on nature, though it never tried crudely to imitate it; and its

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conscious stylization was the final result of a long development from very

naive renderings. Ancient Indian art, therefore, had "been immensely

alive, just because it intensified and transfigured reality. And it lost

contact with that latter only in its last decadence. But in those years the art

of the past was not yet sufficiently known as that people could distinguish

between the genuine and the derivative; and its then current

interpretations, though they did justice to its contents, completely misun-

derstood its formal foundations.

He passed on this new technique to his students at the Government

Art School, like Nandalal Bose, Kshitendranath Mazumdar, Asit Kumar

Haldar, Surendranath Ganguly, Shailendranath Dey, K. Venkatappa, and

Samarendranath Gupta. All of them, not only became famous exponents

of the wash painting technique, but also spread its magic across the whole

country as Principals of the main art schools in India before Independence.

Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury, went to Madras; Asit Kumar Haldar, after a

short stay at Kala Bhavan in Shantiniketan, went to Lucknow;

Samarendranath Gupta to Lahore; Shailendranath Dey to Jaipur; Pramode

Kumar Chatterji to Masulipattam; Kshitindranath Majumdar to Allahabad.

The brothers, Sarada and Ranada Ukil, founded their school—Sarada Ukil

School of Art, in Delhi. Mukul Dey became Principal of Government Art

324

School in Calcutta, and Nandalal Bose, the most illustrious, became

incharge of the Kala Bhavan at Shantiniketan.

Abanindranath and his successors have exercised an immense

influence for the better and for the worse. They soon dominated all the

teaching of art in the country. An immense output, mainly of paintings,

was produced in the new "national" style and almost swept away Western

influences.

Thus the Bengal School became the medium of expression of the

mass mentality and the nationalist successor to the role which Ravi

Varma's pictures had played during the dominance of British rule. For

millions of people it still fulfils this role and will do so as long as that

mentality will persist. For, in a way, both are similar, i.e. they are

romantic-retrospective, and the Bengal School even more than Ravi

Varma. For if Ravi Varma had dressed-the Gods and heroes of the past in

costumes of his own time and placed them in surroundings such as were

familiar to the people, the Bengal masters created an artificial milieu, and

only where they depicted village life they approached reality to some

degree. But they romanticized it likewise, painting a world of sweetness,

song, love and devotion, but suppressing all its less pleasant aspects, all its

bitter struggle for survival, except where this could be exploited for a

sentimental appeal. In all these respects the Bengal School repeats the

325

characteristics of European art in the early 19th century, putting Gupta

classicism in the place of Graeco-Roman, Mughal- Rajput romance in that

of Gothic-Renaissance, Hindu or Muslim devotion in that of Christian and

Indian 'drawing room' peasants in that of Tyroleans, Bretons, Dutch

fishermen and Italian Lazaroni and brigands.

However, this was not the result of imitation; for the Bengal

painters were not acquainted with all those aspects of European art. It was

rather the product of a similar socio-economic situation. Progressive

economic and political liberation could not bring a return to the past, but

just the opposite, a quicker and quicker growth into the modern

technocratic world. For in our hard age the course of a nation is

determined by the needs of survival vis-a-vis a rapidly growing population

to be nourished, an overwhelming economic competition in the

international field, in and a race of armaments of not less gigantic

dimensions. Whoever ignores this is lost. Thus the India of the past is

more and more disappearing, and even whatever survives, undergoes

incisive changes. But man cannot so easily adapt himself to a new world

beyond his imagination and yearns for the 'good old times' of the past

which he is losing, yet also forgetting which hardships since he has been

spared. Art has to fill this gap, to create a dream world in order to satisfy

those yearnings. The Bengal School represents not modern Indian art, but

326

another step in its direction, and even an important one. It has become the

first genuine national style, it has rediscovered composition, linear beauty

and occasionally heights of idealism and spirituality forgotten since the

ebbing away of Krishna mysticism. But it very success was its undoing. It

ended in cheap mass production, a second hand technical routine and

cheap sentimentality, and never came really to grips with modern India.

E. B. Havell and Abanindranth Tagore started the Bengal School in

painting which was called the Renaissance School as well as the

Revivalist School. The movement endeavored to revive the lost values,

and revitalise the indigenous system. This revivalism had ill effects too,

for it took art back to the subject matter of ancient periods in an imitative

manner without much creativity.

But, on the credit side, the movement reminded the Indian artists of

the styles of their ancestors and inspired them to look ahead with

confidence. The old and the new could be developed together.

The artistic creed of this school was gradually challenged and new

developments came about. A genuinely individual search for content and

form led to a successful synthesis of Indian and European techniques. The

first major breakthrough came with the Gagendranath Tagore, Amrita

Shergil, Jamini Roy, and Rabindranath Tagore.

327

Moving away from the realism of the colonial Art Schools and the

revivalist visual language of Abanindranath Tagore‘s Bengal School,

artists such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Jamini Roy (1887-

1972), and Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938) embraced a modernist

simplification of form in the 1930s. Simultaneously, Amrita Shergil

(1913-1941), made rural India a surrogate for her own gendered location

within the larger nationalist struggle. The two members of the .Tagore

family followed their own idea, Gaganendranath, experimenting with

linear patterns and chiaroscuro effects, and the poet Rabindranath, creating

a visionary world of his own.

Amrita Sher-Gil returned to India after being groomed in the

mainstream Western art world in Paris. However, it was not her immediate

contemporary movements in Paris that she choose, but instead brought the

influence of Post-Impressionism and in a certain sense re-enacted

Gauguin-Tahiti with the poor, downtrodden and silent images of infinite

submission of India. She identified with the Post-Impressionists not only

in terms of formal language but also in their passionately non conformist

lifestyle and destiny making her a fitting example of a modern rebel. Sher-

Gil‘s position is also of considerable importance in the feminist context of

modern for leading an individual and purely professional life in the world

of patriarchal chauvinism. In 1934, she returned to India after obtaining

328

training at the famous Ecole-des-Beauz-Arts, Paris. She became a living

emblem blending East and the West.

In her brief career, however, she incorporated post-impressionism

idiom with indigenous traditions like Pahari and Ajanta by which she

arrived at a pictorial solution to the everyday of life of India marking a

considerable difference both from the European influence and the local

Bengal School.

It was the emergence of Santinekatan in 1920s that Indian art

attained some kind of solemn repose and commensurability. Rabindranath

Tagore (1861-1941) being its main architect who devised the educational

formula of art practice that was adherent to the laws of nature. He talked

about the art manifesting human contact with the nature/environment,

which European art of the time was more or less disenchanted with. It was

Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) who, especially in his landscapes, realized the

dreams of Tagore for bringing art closer to nature and nature closer to art.

Tagore‘s initiative was remarkable in the sense that the school realized the

inevitability of the departure from the revivalist historicist temperament of

Abanindranath and the urgency of the relationship with the local and the

immediate – the reflexive nexus in which art and its environment can

grow into a mutually enriching relationship.

329

Rabindranath Tagore was more radical in his experimentation than

Sher-Gil for paving the way towards higher aims of modernism. Tagore‘s

painterly intervention in the mid-twenties anticipated the surreal

expressionist idiom of free associations where scratches, scribbles,

erasures, and doodles transformed into fantastic melancholic primordial

forms. At that time no other artist of India enjoyed the serious attention of

European intellectuals as Tagore‘s art works did, partly due to his

legendary reputation. And partly because of his radical imagination for

expressing his unconscious obsessions with a sense of awe and mystery,

which was strikingly reminiscent of his European contemporaries like

Paul Klee and Max Ernst. Tagore‘s profoundly personal style is attributed

to what came to be defined as ‗erasures‘ erupted from the game of creating

shapes out of crossed-out texts, which interestingly makes a dialectic link

with his discursive scriptural engagement of a prolific poet. In other

words, if one feigns to speculate, Tagore‘s conscious and prolonged

engagement with the production of text suddenly demanded explosion of

images – which attained a concrete and plastic presence in the form of

human and animal forms. He needed a break from the controlled formal

restrain of the writer and seek some kind of refuge in the subjective and

spontaneous release offered by the act of painting. His art, however, finds

a better license in the European art released in the event of Freud‘s

330

discoveries of the subconscious/unconscious, which triggered

experimentation in children‘s art and automatic drawings.

The individualistic stance attributed to Rabindranath Tagore and

Amrita Sher-Gil was further discovered in the primitivism of Jamini Roy

(1887-1972). Roy‘s development came a long way to find a distinctively

individual aesthetic. He had to brush shoulders with various styles ranging

from academic naturalism, Impressionism, and Chinese wash painting

until he rescued himself from the enchanting of European idioms of art

and found his raison d'être in the Bengali folk painters. Taking a break

from the mainstream influences, Roy absorbed and imbibed the unique

characteristics of Kalighat painting. The astonishing simplicity and

deftness of Roy‘s work was initially motivated by the art of Kalighat in its

result of the special handling of the pictorial form, the sense of volume

evoked by the use of shade and light or the skilled linear treatment of

form. Later out of his swadeshi impulse he abandoned foreign art

materials, like oil painting, and turned to indigenous earth colors and

organic pigments. And due to the rising anxiety and the ambition to

identify with the national/modern he renounced Kalighat painting for

being liberal, urban and colonial and turned to village scroll painting

instead. His long journey of art with consistent discontent is suggestive of

the modernist aspirations for individuality and distinctiveness. It shows

331

that his interest in folk art had a bigger reason and deeper implications

than merely stylistic.

Although his pictorial style does remind us of the folk conventions,

his urban self proclaimed itself over and above it, in the way in which he

remodelled and re- structured his sources. The vivacity of his references

often turned into disciplined and highly refined schema that stands at a

remote extreme from its source.

During the last decade of the 19th century Second World War broke

out which had its impact on India too. The political condition of India was

not stable due to many reasons, worse came the man made famine of

Bengal in 1943. Which killed thousands of people and the British

Government was unable to control the situation. The number of dead was

so horrific that the British Government did not even publish the death

figure. In Calcutta, hundreds of skeletal figures begging for food or

scrambling at the garbage dumps with animals for scraps were a common

sight.

Under these circumstances people were bound to react sooner or

later. The artist of Bengal reacted; they were shocked at such scenes of

inhumanity. They began to feel for a new art language to show the

shocking reality around them. Painters like Chittaprosad Bhattacharya,

332

Zainul Abedin, Goverdhan Ash, Somnath Hore and Gopal Gosh felt the

need to respond to the terrible ground reality of Bengal in the devastating

Bengal famine and the traumatic experiences of communal riots. They

depicted the horror of the situation through their paintings. These works

were done with brush and ink on paper. But they left behind unforgettable

visual experiences.

The famine triggered the communist party of India into a great deal

of activity. Building a cultural movement was a part of that. While

Chittaprosad and Somnath Hore were encouraged to print poster, which

were distributed in villages, Zainul Abedin made greater impact with his

famine sketches. He was moved by the ravages of famine. His portfolio of

drawing remains a powerful document of the nightmare.

―Every art work is political in the sense that it offers a perspective

— direct and indirect — on social relations,‖ says Robert Atkins. Hore

identified with the social movements around him — to express them on

canvas. In a way, his work becomes documentary, recording events that

shaped Bengal politics for the future.

―Not every artist creates art to capture the beauty around him, for

the allure of fame and money or to cleanse his soul, but to process his

need for catharsis. Perhaps, this was also one of the reasons that attracted

333

Hore towards print-making as the act of making lithographs is a brutal

medium which metaphorically corresponds to his experience of attrition of

existence.‖

A group of young artists moved away from the lyricism and the

romanticism expressed in the work of earlier Bengali artists. Six artists

formed the ‗Calcutta Group‘, namely, sculptors Pradosh Dasgupta, his

wife Kamala, and painters Gopal Ghosh, Nirode Majumdar, Paritosh Sen

and Subho Tagore. Later, others like Pran Krishna Pal, Govardhan Ash

and Bansi Chandragupta joined the group. The Calcutta Group wanted

their visual expression to convey the crisis of urban society, and the artists

began to paint images that evoked anguish and trauma and reflected the

urban situation. There was nothing purely idyllic-about their rural scenes

either. Also, European modernism began to be reflected in the formal

treatment of the paintings.

By 1947, even as India was gaining independence from colonial

subjugation, restless stirrings among the artists in Bombay (now, Mumbai)

led to the formation of the Progressive Artists‘ Group (PAG). The

members who joined the group were Francis Newton Souza, Maqbool

Fida Husain, Syed Haider Raza, Krishna Hawlaji Ara, Hari Amba Das

Gade and S. Bakre, a sculptor. Besides these early members others too

334

inclined with the group in their choice of aesthetic values and approach to

visual language.

The artists close to the PAG were Akbar Padamsee, Tyeb Mehta,

Bal Chhabda, Vasudeo S Gaitonde, Ram Kumar and Krishna Khanna. The

artists of this group combined Indian subject matter with post-

Impressionist colours, Cubist forms and Expressionistic styles. The group

wished to break with the revivalist nationalism established by the Bengal

School of art and to encourage an Indian avant- garde, engaged at an

international level.

Their intention was to ―paint with absolute freedom for content and

technique. The group disbanded in 1956. Even as the group as a whole

was influenced by European Modernism, each artist worked in his own

distinctive style.

Over time the major trends became: visible projection of the

disturbed social unrest and instability with the predicament of the human

being as the main theme; an interest in Indian thought and metaphysics

There is little conflict between form and content or technique and

expression; almost everybody is certain that technique and form are only

important prerequisites to something more essential—the idea, message or

spirit.

335

The partition of the country led to the uprooting of millions of

people in the Punjab and Bengal forcing upon them untold misery. Some

painters, both in the east and the west reacted variously to this communal

fury and massacre. In their individual ways, B C Sanyal, Pran Nath Mago

and Satish Gujral from Lahore, Harkrishan Lall from Ludhiana, Biswanath

Mukherjee, Sobha Singh, M K Bardhan and Sailoz Mukerjee from Delhi,

Debbrata Mukhopadhayay, Manishi Dey, Somenath Hore and Ashok

Mazumdar from Bengal, and N S Bendre from Bombay, all painted the

gory holocaust of the partition.

The reactions of artists to events that affected a whole nation were

important. The realisation that problems of immense magnitude should be-

come the themes for serious painting, introduced a new, and meaningful

content into the creative expression of the artists of the time, the first step,

indeed, towards a renewal of form.

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Annexure

I

Plate. 1

Plate. 2

II

Plate.3

Plate.4

III

Plate. 5

Plate. 6

IV

Plate.7

Plate.8

V

Plate.9

Plate.10

Plate. 11

VI

Plate.12

Plate.13

VII

Plate.14

Plate.15

VIII

Plate.16

Plate.17

IX

Plate.18

Plate. 19

X

Plate.20

Plate.21

Plate.22

XI

Plate.23

XII

Plate. 24

Plate.25

XIII

Plate.26a

Plate.26b

Plate.27

XIV

Plate.28

Plate.29

Plate.30

XV

Plate.31

Plate.32

Plate.33

XVI

Plate.34

Plate.35

Plate. 36

XVII

Plate.37

Plate. 38

XVIII

Plate.39

Plate.40

XIX

Plate. 41

Plate. 42

XX

Plate.43

Plate.44

XXI

Plate. 45

Plate. 46

XXII

Plate. 47

Plate. 48

XXIII

Plate. 49

Plate. 50

XXIV

Plate. 51 a

Plate.51b

XXV

Plate. 52 a

Plate. 52 b

XXVI

Plate. 52 c

Plate. 52 d

XXVII

Plate.53 a

Plate.53 b

XXVIII

Plate. 54

Plate. 55

XXIX

Plate. 56

Plate.57

XXX

Plate. 58.

XXXI

Plate.59

’Plate. 60

XXXII

Plate. 61

Plate.62

XXXIII

Plate.63 a

Plate. 63 b

XXXIV

Plate.63c

Plate.623d

XXXV

Plate. 64a

Plate.64b

XXXVI

Plate. 65 a

Plate.65 b