Osian's Auction Catalogue India The Passionate Detachment | February 2001

EXPERIMENTS & EXPRESSIONISM 139 108 MUKUL DEY (1895 — 1989) a. Three Friends Husking in Rice Fields Signed in English, l.r. Etching, mid 1940s 38 x 29 cm. (15.0 x 11.5”) b. Flying Gandharvas Signed in English, l.r. Etching, mid 1940s 41 x 30.2 cm. (16.1 x 11.9”) c. Shakuntala Watering Plants Signed in English, l.r. Etching, 1947 30.4 x 17.4 cm. (12.0 x 6.8”) Rs. 125,000 – 175,000 $ 2,660 – 3,725 (Set of 3) “ It is so strange, as at first sight it seems, that an Indian artist should have mastered the use of a tool so western as the dry point. To a hand so skilled as his in wielding pencil & brush, it can have presented no great difficulties… he has chosen wisely in being true to the traditions of his race, instead of adopting, with a European technique, the kind of subjects that a European engraver would naturally choose.” (Campbell Dodgson [Keeper of Prints & Drawings, British Museum], from Mukul Dey’s Drypoint & Drawings London ExC . 1927 ). “ His agile mind and great intelligence struck me at once and undoubtedly he mastered the processes and methods used in English art very quickly and did some beautiful work. As an etcher I ranked him very highly…” (Muirhead Bone, from Letter dt. 14 June 1947 ). a b c