Osian's Auction Catalogue Forty Masterpieces | March 2003

NANDALAL BOSE [1882-1966 / b.Kharagpur, West Bengal] National Art Treasure of India Condition Minor preservation work could be carried out upon various little parts of the drawing, such as top and lower left Provenance Private Family Collection, Kolkata Please refer to b/w illustration of Durga [Fig.159, p194; NGMA Acc. No.4847] in NanJalal Bose (1882-1966): Centenary Exhibition. New Delhi: NGMA 1982. HT.ND/ 28.11.1999 Lot 160 Dandiya Dance Brush drawing on silk, 1952 15.5 x 32.5 cm Os.Mum/23 .02.2001 Lot 44 Indra & Airavata Tempera on Japanese Golden Board, early 1940s 82.4 x 35.1 ern Os.Mum/I 9.10.2001 Lot 3 Sankaracharya & Disciples Watercolour on paper, 1953 20.0 x 50.0 cm 7 Overleaf Mahishasur Mardini Signed in Bengali, I.r. Ink & Brush on paper, ca.1935 73.0 x 46.5 ern [28.7 x 18.3 in] Rs. 900,000 - 1,000,000 Non -Exportable hem “ T he rhythm which emerges from the initial aesth etic impulse may be called life-rhythm; it holds within it the specific featur es and attributes necessary to give body to that impulse. In a painting its presence can be sensed in a dynamic line, through which you sense its primal pulse-beats. By the virtue of this line the painting gains an integral unity and distinction. Emerging from this primal line other lines course an over-all rhythm throughout the picture surface. T heir function is to receive the basic impulse of th e life-rhythm, nurture it and canalize it in various ways and dir ections. By the virtue of this, and the compact network of lines working with and against the basic rhythm, a field of vibration is created, where the life-rhythm can be experienced in every part. Ornamentation or craftsmanship results from substrucruring rhythm, like a rivet into its main streams ... “ (Nandalal Bose, reprinted in Vision & Creation. Calcutta: Visva-Bharati Publishing Dept. 1999 [Translated by Kalpari Ganapati Subramanyan from Bengali]; p31. ) “ Among the artist s of his time Nandalal was unique in creating formal drawings as works of art. Hi s themes are imaginative figures, stylized and imbued with his love for decorative form. ‘The plasticity of his art harmonises with its simultaneous graphic and linear qual ity.’ The lines are like those that define Indi an sculpture. They are taut and have a ten sile strength, though executed with the brush. They are informed with style.. . The geswres and bodil y movements are those seen in our ancient art as much as in the stance and gait of contemporary people. Nandalal’s achievement was to grasp the essence to form with a minimum of means.” (jaya Appasam y, in ‘Nandalal - Master Draughtsman’, reprinted in Nandalal Bose (I8821966): Centenary Exhibition. New Delhi : NGMA 1982 , p27.)