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

THE PASSIONATE DETACHMENT 152 125 DILIP KUMAR DASGUPTA (1914 — 89) Buddhist Temple in Tokyo Transparent watercolour, c. 1949 35.6 x 25.1 cm. (14.0 x 9.9”) Rs. 50,000 – 75,000 $ 1,065 – 1,595 126 KRIPAL SINGH SHEKAWAT (b. 1914) Japanese Landscape (scroll) Signed in Japanese. Opaque watercolour & Chinese ink on silk, late 1950s. 37.3 x 115 cm. (14.7 x 45.3”) “ Pioneer in the use of transparent watercolour, as he is known widely, Mr.Dasgupta had caught the fancy with a whole new style. The style, that was neither oriental ( to be more specific, Japanese) wash process nor of continental British school, emanated from his cultivated ‘deep within’ — thus strikingly original. It revolves around two sides of an imaginative execution — first being the use of basic colours that blend harmoniously with the second phase of applying darker shades… Truly, like Japanese/ Chinese water colour, his palette was restricted to pale yellow, brown and viridian green and here the similarities end… His difference with Chinese and British school was evident from his approach to the subject… Mr.Dasgupta used to complete his watercolour on the spot from beginning to end. He never believed in touch-up and corrections or add-on…” (Mrityunjay Chakraborty, from Retrospective ExC. 1990 ). Rs. 125,000 – 175,000 $ 2,660 – 3,725