Osian's Auction Catalogue Creative India Series 1 Bengal | December 2011

J amini r oy 11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972 Mother and Child Tempera on canvas, Mid 1950s Signed in Bengali ‘Jamini Rai’ l.r. 55.8 x 36.2 in (139.5 x 90.6 cm) Condition Minor paint flaking t.r., abrasions on lower portion Provenance Acquired by Chitrakoot Art Gallery from an old collector of Jamini Roy - Mr. Ashok Roy, who in turn had acquired it from the artist directly in 1955. ` 2,600,000 – 3,900,000 US$ 52,000 – 78,000 National Art Treasure Non-Exportable Item 50 1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1910 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 2000 Creative India BENGaL | Jamini Roy 121 120 Paintings of this size and quality are very rare to find and have not come up for public auction previously. “For forty years, with unfailing zeal, Jamini Roy has explored the problems of plastic form and colour, tirelessly seeking new and even more powerful means of expression. The problems of colour and line, their dynamics and intensity, their expressive force and their relation to plastic form have been so clearly and uncompromisingly stated in his art - and so often convincingly and originally solved - that his work, while transcending his own time and country by its power, has buried itself with pictorial design of all time, and earned the respect of artists and critics throughout the world.” [Amrita, rpt. in Anand, Mulk Raj [Ed.] [1962]. The Modern Movement of Art in India: A Symposium (Including Abanindranath and his Tradition). New Delhi: [Essay. JOU] Lalit Kala Contemporary No.1 (LKA); p.15] “Jamini Roy contends that all good pictures ought to stand enlargement. This is interesting when we consider that only basic form can withstand the exposure of increased size. He has never at any time been limited in subject-matter, and even as an academic painter his range had been wider than that of any of his contemporaries.” [Dey, Bishnu & John Irwin [1944]. Jamini Roy. Calcutta: The Indian Society of Oriental Art [ISOA]; p.24.]