In this drawing, Nandalal Bose illustrates a woman sitting leisurely on the edge of a cliff. The artist uses minimal strokes to render the rapid flow of water and the ridged surface of the cliff. Dinkar Kowshik in his article 'Drawings and Sketches of Nandalal in the book, "Nandalal Bose - A collection of Essays" has elucidated about the sketches of Nandalal in the words, "Nandalal's drawings are vast in number and varied in technical interest. He was indefatigable in his search for form and to the end of his life he remained a student. Whatever he saw, and wherever he went he recorded the flora and fauna, the people of the place, their dress, their carriages, the head-dresses, the landscape, the festivals, the architecture, and while doing that he went on attaining a felicity of expression. His drawings often on card size format turned into independent works of art; they were fresh and vivid because of their immediacy and rapport with felt reality. They were not preliminary sketches to be developed later into painting. In fact most of these drawings and sketches were an end in themselves. Their compositional relation to the blank space, their shrewd sense of observation, and their living organic quality make his sketches an end in themselves. Their compositional relation to the blank space, their shrewd sense of observation, and their living organic quality make his sketches far more absorbing aesthetically than many of his finished paintings." Nandalal preferred drawing from life, often sketching outdoors with the subject being life, nature studies, landscapes, figure drawings, animals. Often the sketches were small in scale although invigorating with the rich detailing of the artist's observations, experiences and sojourns to various places. This sketch was signed and dated 'Nanda, 7.6.57' in Bengali along the right margin of the painting with pen and ink. The painting also has an inscription that reads, 'Santiniketan' in Bengali along the lower margin of the painting.
- Identifier
- ngma-09278
- Material
- Pen, Ink, Postcard
- Note
- Nandalal Bose, popularly known as the Master Moshai, was born on December 3rd, 1882 in Kharagpur, Monghyr District, Bihar. A disciple of Abanindranath Tagore, he graduated from Government School of Art, Calcutta in 1910. Nandalal was fascinated by the potential of folk art and indigenous modes of expression and inculcated them in his works although stylising them in a unique representation for depiction and narration of local life. His explorative temperament with the artistic materials allowed him to create a vast body of work with printmaking techniques as lithography, linoleum prints and Sino- Japanese techniques while remaining faithful to his narrative subject: India's environment and its ethos. Nandalal Bose's art conjures newness unbound but still flushed with the memories of yesterday. Inspired by Far Eastern sensibilities that celebrate the traditional, the genius of his art's lies in the interplay of sensual silhouettes and his powerful rendering of contemporary themes with the traditions, customs and sensibilities of Indian heritage. It is this intermingling that invigorates his works and captures the minds of his viewers. He began his artistic career in the fervour of Swadeshi movement, rejecting western colonial norms of art and taking inspirations from the ancient murals of Ajanta and Bagh caves as well as Mughal miniatures. In 1919, Nandalal Bose accepted Rabindranath Tagore's invitation to become the Principal of the newly established art school Kala Bhavan at Visvabharati University in Santiniketan. He travelled in and out of India including places like Burma, China, Japan, Malaysia, Java and Sri Lanka seeking artistic stimulus from observing different cultural traditions. He also painted a series of posters for the Indian National Congress at Haripura in February 1938. The range of Nandalal's artistic expressions is seen in his various landscapes with human figures, his varied images of nature and the Santiniketan Murals. His works reflect the changing landscape, portraying people and places at a time when modern India's cultural development was at its threshold. Nandalal Bose died on April 16th, 1966 in Santiniketan, West Bengal. He won several accolades including the Padma Vibhushan by the President of India in 1953. He was awarded with an honorary Doctorate in Letters (D. Litt.) from Banaras Hindu University in 1950 and Calcutta University in 1957. The NGMA has over 6800 of his works in his collection.
- Pages
- 13.8 x 8.7 cm
- Published in
- India
- Type
- Painting
