Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

24 3 A BAnindrAnAth t Agore (1871 – 1951) National Art Treasure Young Lama Watercolour on paper, early 1930s Signed in Devanagari ‘Abanindra’ t.r. 15.2 x 10.4 in (38.8 x 26.4 cm) Provenance THE OSIAN’s COLLECTION. INR 1,200,000 – 1,800,000 Non–Exportable Item “It is clear then that mere sense of sight will never lead you further than women differently dressed and differently occupied, old or young or middle-aged, fat or thin, fair or dark. Sight will never give you the spirit, the soul indwelling the form, it will always parade before you a number of dressed up puppets posing and simulating a mother or a savant, a queen or a sweeper; it will never give the true mother or the true queen, but always the actress, a wooden toy amusing, sometimes amazing, to look at. The difference that exists between outer forms gives us only the variety and not the verity which underlies all rupa .” –Abanindranath Tagore and Sudhir Nandi, Art and Aesthetics of Abanindranath Tagore , Rabindra Bharatti University, Calcutta,1983, p.45.