Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

26 5 A BAnindrAnAth t Agore (1871 – 1951) National Art Treasure Temple on Hill Top Watercolour & Wash on handmade paper, early 1910s Signed in Devanagari ‘Abanindra’ l.l. and signed in Bengali ‘Abanindranath Thakur’ on verso Inscribed in Bengali ‘Amar Snehophar’ (my gift with affection) ‘1 Push’ on verso 5.0 x 7.0 in (12.8 x 17.8 cm) Provenance THE OSIAN’s COLLECTION. INR 700,000 – 1,000,000 Non–Exportable Item “During the time Abanindranath was trying to imitate Indian style of painting, he rarely gave attention to landscape. While holidaying in the Himalayas, he did do a few colour notes which show his mastery in creating light and shade out of colours. Other stray landscapes done by him show that his impression was mainly visual. The series he did of Bengal countryside after a visit to Shahjadpur, was really his first group of full-scale landscape paintings. These were done in Calcutta on the basis of impressions gathered during his visit to the countryside. In common with his other paintings of the decade, these too, reveal his distinctly personal style. Resplendent with light, his landscapes of Bengal countryside supersede the narrowly local or parochial and present the eternal beauty on nature’s face through subtle variations of tone of vivid colours. Although we detect in them a sharp eye for details, they are nevertheless, singularly free from exaggeration.” – Binode Behari Mukherjee, Abanindranath Tagore, NGMA, New Delhi, 1988, p.39.