Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | January 2008

38 Artist of Focus Abanindranath Tagore 14 Abanindranath Tagore (1871 - 1951) National Art Treasure The Kajri Dance Signed l.r. Watercolour and wash heightened with gold on paper , c .1914 10.6 x 7.5 in (27.0 x 19.0 cm) Provenance The Dr. Suhridchandra Sinha (1901-1982) Collection as handed down to his daughter Suchhanda Sarkar, Kolkata INR 2,000,000 – 2,500,000 Non-Exportable Item Lot 14 represents one of the most significant paintings of the Bengal School movement ever to come up for public auction. 15 Abanindranath Tagore (1871 - 1951) National Art Treasure Brother Frog, Brother Mosquito Signed in a Sylised form ‘Abanindra’ and dated in Bengali ‘4/12/52’ l.r. Watercolour and wash on paper, c . 1945 11.9 x 8.1 in (30.3 x 20.5 cm) Provenance The Dr. Suhridchandra Sinha (1901-1982) Collection as handed down to his daughter Suchhanda Sarkar, Kolkata Condition Brown stains at few places INR 1,000,000 – 1,250,000 Non-Exportable Item 16 Abanindranath Tagore (1871 - 1951) National Art Treasure Untitled Signed in a Sylised form ‘Abanindra’ l.r. dated in Bengali ‘4/12/52’ l.l. Watercolour on pasted on cardboard, c . 1945 9.6 x 12.6 in (24.5 x 32.0 cm) Provenance The Dr. Suhridchandra Sinha (1901-1982) Collection as handed down to his daughter Suchhanda Sarkar, Kolkata INR 1,000,000 – 1,250,000 Non-Exportable Item Literary References Lot 14 has been illustrated in Bharati and Prabasi (1917) along with the the following publications: (1) Sen, Pulinbihari (Ed.). A banindranath Tagore . Golden Jubilee Number. Calcutta: ISOA, 1961. The ‘Kajri’ Dance, p.viii. (2) Parimoo, Ratan. The Paintings of the Three Tagores Abanindranath, Gaganendranath, Rabindranath: Chronology and Comparative Study . Baroda: Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 1973. plate 48. (3) Mitter, Partha. Art and Nationalism in Colonial India 1850 – 1922 Occidental Orientations . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. p.365. “ The figures in Kajari (sic) Dance (plate 48) was not outlined yet it is also two-dimensional. Based on an Orissan folk dance, as described by Abanindranath in his Jorasankore Dhare, it has a rapid rhythmic movement unlike many of his paintings. In the paintings discussed above, although they all have subtle nuances of colour, there is always a dominant colour tone - in Shah Jahan Dreaming it is brownish pink, in Kajari Dance it is umberish terra verte.” Ratan Parimoo, rpt. in The Paintings of the Three Tagores Abanindranath, Gaganendranath, Rabindranath: Chronology and Comparative Study . Baroda: Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 1973. p.81; pl. 48.