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

1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1910 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 2000 H emendranaTH m azumdar 19 September 1894 – 22 July 1948 after the Bath-II Watercolour on paper (pasted on paperboard), Early 1930s Signed in English ‘Hmazumdar’ l.l. 18.5 x 10.7 in (46.4 x 26.9 cm) Provenance Private old zamindar collection, Howrah. ` 500,000 – 750,000 US$ 10,000 – 15,000 H emendranaTH m azumdar 19 September 1894 – 22 July 1948 after the Bath-I Watercolour on paper (pasted on paperboard), Early 1930s Signed in English ‘Hmazumdar’ l.l. 16.9 x 10.0 in (42.9 x 25.5 cm) Provenance Private old zamindar collection, Howrah. ` 500,000 – 750,000 US$ 10,000 – 15,000 59 60 “Mazumdar was obsessed with capturing the sexual appeal of the lighted-skinned elite women of Bengal, and even wrote verses of his paintings. Most probably the model or inspiration for all these women was his wife, but the subjects cannot be definitively identified. His draped studies captured the dreamy sensuousness of his sitters absorbed in their own reveries.” [Mitter, Partha [2007]. The Triumph of Modernism: India’s Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press; p.136] “The subject of a rustic maiden returning home in a wet sari after her daily ablutions gave the artist scope to represent the model’s fleshy buttocks and rounded shoulders partially visible through her wet cloth… He lovingly delineated the rounded nape of the neck, the fleshy contours of the shoulders, the small of the back, the concave of the spinal column, the hips and buttocks. For all its clever suggestion of an arrested movement, the work was carefully realized in the studio. In order to capture the particular pose he also used photographs. Mazumdar created a new genre of figure painting in India, suggesting sensuous flesh tones and soft quality of the skin, spied through the semi-transparent garment.” [Mitter, Partha [2007]. The Triumph of Modernism: India’s Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-1947 . New Delhi: Oxford University Press; pp.133-35] Full image for Lot 59 on p.140. Full image for Lot 60 on p.141. Creative India BENGaL | Hemendranath Mazumdar & the Western Academic Style in Bengal 139 138