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

41 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 1,200,000 – 1,500,000 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 1,200,000 – 1,500,000 Non-Exportable Item ‘The technique of Abanindranath got its ingredients from Mughal, Japanese and European traditions. But this realism of his paintings is neither of the British academic type, nor of the Japanese, nor even of the Mughal type. It is a realism absolutely his own; to be more precise, one might say that he presented the decorative form of the Mughal school in all its meticulous delicacy in a light more real, and the technique he adopted for this purpose did not belong to any specific tradition. It was wholly a creation of his own in order to express his own idea. Thus Abanindranath is not the founder of any tradition in painting; he is the creator of a new style’ Binodbihari Mukhopadhyaya, rpt. in Abanindranath Tagore . Calcutta: ISOA, 1961; p. 72.