Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces Series | March 2010

41 The Masterpieces SerieS 16 n.s. B endre (1910 – 1992) Mahim Beach Study (Double-sided work) Watercolour on paper, 1954 & 1970 S/d in Devanagari ‘Bendre 54’ l.r. Signed in Devanagari ‘Bendre’ and dated in English ‘70’ l.r. on verso 12.0 x 14.8 in (30.4 x 37.3 cm) Provenance The Dinesh & Varsha Thacker Collection. The oil painting for which this watercolour is a study was sold at Osian’s on 26 March 2004. INR 480,000 – 720,000 US$ 10,000 – 15,000 “With the inclusion of the hues and even the inclusion of the black colour which are Expressionist traits, Bendre rather successfully attempted a sort of telescoping of the late nineteenth century French Impressionist style with the German Expressionist style of the second decade of the twentieth century… Langhammer brought into India Kokoschka’s style of panoramic landscapes. Similar hues of colour were employed by Bendre to replace the mellow colour scheme of the existing Indore school as if to usher in the celebration of the Indian sunshine.” – Prof. Ratan Parimoo rpt. in Indian Art Exhibition: N.S. Bendre, ExC., (organized by Individuals Cultural Centre), Abhinav Art Gallery, Jammu, 1992. “A diffusive movement represented by a vaporous style developed in the works of Bendre. Nature in its idyllic setting with the luminous Indian sun was the main characteristic of Bendre’s rural landscapes. The village scenes of rural India painted in yellow ochre and the browns of the countryside had become part of the unchanged internal character of India.” – Sunil Kumar Bhattacharya, Trends in Modern Indian Art, M. D. Publications, Delhi, 1994, p.21. Verso