Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Fine Arts | June 2017

14 Jamini Roy (1887 – 1972) Street Scene Tempera on paper, nd (Early 1920s) Signed in Bengali ‘Jamini Jamini Roy’ on verso 13.4 x 8.9 in (34.0 x 22.5 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from Jamini Roy’s Family Collection by Mumbai-based Collector. INR 400,000 – 600,000 USD 6,250 – 9,375 National Art Treasure | Non-Exportable Item 13 Jamini Roy (1887 – 1972) Hanuman Meets Sita Tempera on canvas pasted on board, nd (c.1941) Signed in Bengali ‘Jamini Roy’ l.r 16.5 x 40.9 in (42.0 x 104.0 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from artist Jamini Roy by Amitabha Niyogi, former Chief Secretary to Government of West Bengal; thereafter by descent to his son. Illustrative Reference Colour illustration of the larger series, after which smaller versions were created for select important clients, rpt. in Partha Mitter (Author). Triumph of Modernism: India’s Artists and the Avant-Garde 1922-1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007. p.107. (9780195693361) INR 1,000,000 – 1,500,000 USD 15,625 – 23,438 National Art Treasure Non-Exportable Item Full double-spread image on pp.42-43 “I have said before that Jamini Roy is the first modern painter who has reaffirmed the authentic Indian pictorial language which one instantly recognizes and acclaims. In his quest for pure painting he finds it necessary to deny certain aspects of modern life. He asserts that he does not recognize the contemporary social or political structure, its torn, formless, amorphous existence, devoid of unity and design… One does not cease to wonder, for instance, why in spite of his rich personal idiom and adequate pictorial language, so movingly demonstrated in his Last Supper and Crucifixions , he has not felt interested enough to tell of Gandhi’s martyrdom. It seems as if all the catastrophic and tragic events of the last few decades have passed him without a trace and left him unchanged.” Amrita rpt. in Lalit Kala Contemporary 2, December 1964; p18. “Rich and inexhaustible was the choice of subjects. The myths and legends of the Hindu people: Krishna and his exploits, Sita the heroine of the great Ramayana epic, the tribes and sects of his native district, the village people at work and play, animals gay and colourful in the wondrous abstractions of the toy-makers.” Rudi Von Leyden rpt. in The Art of Jamini Roy: A Centenary Volume Birla Academy Of Art & Culture ExC 1987. 44 | Osian’s–Connoisseurs of Art