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

a BanindranaTH T agore 7 August 1851 – 5 December 1951 Bengal Landscape Series Watercolour on paper, 1942 Signed in Devanagari ‘Avanindra’ l.l. Inscribed in pencil in English ‘1942 & no-38’ (on verso). 11.7 x 6.7 in (29.5 x 17.2 cm) Condition Minor brown stains at c.r. and lower portion. Provenance** ‘Private Individual Collector who had purchased the work in London from Christie’s. Thereafter purchased by a Kolkata-based collector. Thereafter sold to a Delhi-based gallery. Thereafter purchased by Osian’s - Connoisseurs of Art.’ ` 800,000 – 1,200,000 US$ 16,000 – 24,000 National Art Treasure Non-Exportable Item 29 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 | Abanindranath Tagore 65 64 “During the time Abanindranath was trying to imitate Indian style of painting, he rarely gave attention to landscapes. 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 Shaahjadpur, 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 supercede 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.” [Mukherjee, Benode Behari [Text] [1988]. Abanindranath Tagore. New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art; p.39]