Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Contemporary Fine Arts | October 2018

Gaganendranath Tagore b. 18 September 1867 – d. 14 February 1938 Himalaya Scene Watercolour wash on paper, c.1916-20 9.5 x 6.6 in (24.2 x 16.8 cm) Signed ‘G.T.’ l.l. Artist seal l.l. ` 300,000 – 450,000 $ 4,170 – 6,250 Provenance Formerly in the art collection of the Late Dr. Bibhuty Bhusan Palit, who was an assistant to the great Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, physicist, educationist and the first former Chief Minister of West Bengal (1948-62). 6 National Art Treasure | Non-Exportable Item His works between 1910 and 1930 showed innumerable stylistic shifts and his style is always tentative. During the two decades, Gaganendranath continuously oscillated between reality and fantasy… His landscapes… are known for their freshness depicting the mood and the atmosphere of the place and are marked for their quietitude. In the landscapes of both the brothers, mini-human or animal presence or a lonely boat conveys the scale and distance. Sovon Som in ‘Abanindranath Tagore and Gaganendranath Tagore A Reappraisal’, rpt. in Lalit Kala Contemporary Journal No.38, March 1993; p.23 The quality of ‘sublime’ as found in his (Gaganendranath) Himalayan landscapes, achieved through the exploitation of scale, bringing out the celestial grandeur of the sacred mountains to which also contributes the way light is handled, ties up with his late post-cubist paintings. They have a “visionary” element as is said of, for instance, William Blake and Turner… These paintings not only indicate his frame of mind but also how far he had traveled from his “Impressionist” and “Japanese” days. Ratan Parimoo rpt. in The Pictorial World of Rabindranath Tagore NGMA 1996; p66 Detailed Artist Biography osianama.com/artists/ gaganendranath-tagore detail