Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

34 Early ‘Dutch’ Bengal School Gour Nitai Oil on canvas, nd 17.7 x 25.4 in (45.0 x 64.5 cm) Provenance Private Kolkata-based Collection INR 800,000 – 1,200,000 USD 11,940 – 17,910 “..., though stylistically the painters of Early Bengal oils were inspired by the rich oils executed by European artists, they were still not conversant with the grammer of naturalistic painting of the west. Thus the use of ‘perspective’ still eluded them. It was this non- familiarity that bred the best results. The painters resolved the issues of volume and perspective in their own way thus leading the way to an organic evolution of style and visual language that was at once simple and charming. What we see in fact is a lucid, spontaneous fusion of three apparently disparate art traditions-Mughal Miniatures, Western Naturalistic oil painting, and indigenous Patachitra. There is hardly any documentation on the Early Bengal oils, but it is widely held that they were painted by many of the descendants of miniature painters from Murshidabad and other parts of Bengal and Bihar. These painters had moved to Calcutta and started catering to the rich aristocratic Hindu families of the city, as is clearly evident from the religious themes of most of the works. The paintings were by and large unsigned and undated. The Early Bengal oils are perhaps, one of the finest outcomes of the cross-cultural fertilization during the colonial period. This trend in Bengal persisted till early twentieth century.” – Rakhi Sarkar, rpt. in Art of Bengal: Past and Present 1850-2000. 2000. p24-25 Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts & Books | 73