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

R abindRanath t agoRe 6 July 1861 – 7 August 1941 Landscape Watercolour on paper, 1938 S/d in Bengali l.r. 6.3 x 9.8 in (16.0 x 25.0 cm) Condition Good, previously restored Provenance Acquired by a Kolkata-based gallery from the Family Collection of Abhijit Dey, whose grandfather was the Chief Justice of Kolkata and a friend of Rabindranath Tagore, during whose lifetime the core of the collection was built. ` 2,600,000 – 3,900,000 US$ 52,000 – 78,000 National Art Treasure Non-Exportable Item 69 1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1910 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 2000 “The drop and loop shapes come easily to Tagore’s brush or pen. Although related in the oscillation of their curves to “free form” their impact is not only more intense but brings about the structural organization of the single fluid shapes. They build up a design of formal logic which organises the surface of the picture to an extent where the remotest blank part of the drawing or the nameless coloured ground are vital in their response to the movement of the curves...As phantom the figure arises, flaring up. Its voids rise as lambent darts, limbs, body and head. Burning with intensity the figure emits its own shadow. Ensconced by its darkness the figure is stabilised between threats and acceptance, dangers lurking here from an eye, there from gaping jaws. Encounters and associations arise from the design compulsively laid out, a direct communication of a pattern of terror and victory, their polarity informing the conduct of the brush and blending the colour of the painting. Whatever is reminiscent of eye, face or body is thrown up by the design and is embedded in the intensity of the colour.” [Stella Kramrisch, rpt. in Anand, Mulk Raj [Ed.] [1964]. The Four Initiators of the Contemporary Experimentalism: Gaganendranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil and Rabindranath Tagore. New Delhi: Lalit Kala Contemporary (LKA); p.37.] Creative India BENGAL | Rabindranath Tagore & Santiniketan 163 162 “None would have disliked more than Tagore a verbalizing of the form and content of his paintings and drawings. They were the vent outside his literary work for impulses and realizations not within the scope of words. They were, moreover, expressions of freedom and leisure. No tradition and no responsibility towards them determined their form. They fitted moments of relaxation and owed no allegiance other than to the impetus which provoked them” [Stella Kramrisch, rpt. in Anand, Mulk Raj [Ed.] [1964]. The Four Initiators of the Contemporary Experimentalism: Gaganendranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil and Rabindranath Tagore. New Delhi: Lalit Kala Contemporary (LKA); p.37.] From an Important Collection