Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces and Museum Quality Series | October 2004

THE MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY SERIES 49 23 Hemendranath MAZUMDAR [1894-1948/ b .Kishoregunj, present-day Bangladesh] Woman Before Mirror Signed in English l.l. Oil on canvas, c.1920 51.0 x 43.5 cm (20.1 x 17.1 in) Rs. 2,500,000 – 3,000,000 US $ 54,000 – 64,800 GB £ 29,575 – 35,500 24 Ram Gopal VIJAIWARGIYA [1905-2003/ b .Baler, Rajasthan] Yakshis in Water Sport Watercolour & wash on paper, c.1933 67.6 x 100.8 cm (26.6 x 39,7 in) Provenance Originally acquired by present owner from Rana Parakram Jung Bahadur (Allahabad). Waterstains evident along the base with mild flaking c.r. and some paper loss t.l. Rs. 800,000 – 900,000 $ 17,300 – 19,450 £ 9,475 – 10,650 ‘Vijaiwargiya is best known for his Tagore School paintings with their typical Ajanta characteristics, gracefully curving bodies, softly smiling mouths, half-closed, doe-like eyes, thin sinuous arms and long tapering fingers. This style was his forte. His early work in the Tagore style was mostly imaginative-picturisation of the lyrics in Jaideva’s Gita Govind , the couplets of Omar Khayyam, the poems of Kalidasa, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata epics, tales from the Jatakas and musical modes of Indian classical music.’– Dr. Manohar Prabhakar, rpt. Ram Gopal Vijaiwargiya. LKA 1988. ‘Before beginning a work in oil, the primary duty of every student should be to understand the nature of each colour its tone and effect on the canvas… From the outstanding feature of the subject-matter of painting, a clear conception as to the appropriateness of the colours to be used may well be formed. And it is no gainsaying the fact that the clearer the conception, the greater is the chance of a good selection…Whatever may be the intrinsic merit of colours if their blending is not made with proper regard to the chemical action they are liable to undergo, by mutual contact, all attempt to bring about harmonious effect will be as futile as anything…. No painting presents the characteristics of dullness as soon as a coating is applied to it. The best policy is to look into the dark portions of the picture after a lapse of time, with the usual critical eye of an artist, for it is in those places that the first sign of a dull monotonous tone becomes clearly manifest.’ –Hemendranath Mazumdar, rpt. in Indian Academy of Art, Calcutta January 1920. Please refer to Marg Vol.41 No.4, p56 for full page colour illustration from the same series. Depicting the female form in various moods & poses was a speciality of Hemendranath Mazumdar. Refer to The Art of Vijaiwargiya . Allahabad 1935, for colour illustration of work from the same series.