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

Bengal Landscape Series Watercolour on paper, 1916-20 Initialled in English ‘G.T.’ l.l. 6.8 x 4.9 in (17.4 x 12.2 cm) Provenance ‘Family Collection of Shoma Chatterjee. Ms Chatterjee is the daughter of Manindranath Tagore (s/o Samarendranath Tagore, the elder brother to Abanindranath Tagore).’ ` 600,000 – 900,000 US$ 12,000 – 18,000 National Art Treasure Non-Exportable Item 32 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 | Gaganendranath Tagore 73 72 “His early landscapes show that he had thoroughly mastered the art of the watercolour. At this time rural scenes of Bengal are the principal subject of his studies. Open views mostly rather than regular forms captured the artist’s attention; his aim was to create atmosphere, and not so much to depict objects in nature. On the one hand the plains of Bengal attracted him on the other, the mountains and woods in Ranchi and Hazaribagh area are also caught in his brush again and again...Unlike any of his contemporaries, Gaganendranath was as much inspired by nature as by the scenes of Calcutta. His best landscapes may be considered to be those, in which, instead of representing likeness of objects in nature, a pictorial appeal is produced through a mixture or contrast of black and white.” [Benode Behari Mukherjee, rpt. in Sen, Pulinbehari (Ed.) [1972]. Gaganendranath Tagore. Calcutta: The Indian Society of Oriental Art [ISOA]; p.41, full article pp.41-2.] g aganendranaTH T agore 18 September 1867 – 14 February 1938 from An important family collection