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

45 Indian Modern Contemporary Fine Arts Jamini Roy b. 11 April 1887 – d. 24 April 1972 Christ Series Tempera on board, Mid 1940s 21.9 x 14.7 in (55.6 x 37.3 cm) Signed in Bengali ‘Jamini Roy’ l.r. ` 400,000 – 600,000 $ 5,560 – 8,330 Provenance Acquired by Chitrakoot Art Gallery in the late 1980s. This Lot will be accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity from Jamini Roy’s eldest grandson - Debabrata Roy. 14 National Art Treasure | Non-Exportable Item ‘Christian themes undoubtedly acquired a fresh meaning in the eyes of Jamini Roy. His paintings of Christ reflect a commingling of the mercy and grace of Vaisnavism along with deep emotive appeal of the Byzantine and Russian icons. Christ appeared in his painting in a novel structural form typical of Jamini Roy’s style with undifferentiated bodies, large head and protruding eyes and beard. Herein the artist tried to assimilate the human and divine character into one by abstract symbolic means of folk art tradition… to portray the scintillating effect of the Byzantine mosaics and Russian icons Jamini Roy used multicoloured dots in Christ studies and other subjects in tempera method.’ Sipra Chakravarti rpt. in Album of Art Treasures (Series-Six) Paintings of Jamini Roy. Indian Museum, Calcutta 1991. It cannot be denied that he [Jamini Roy] has introduced into these portraits [of Christ] a new tenderness and a quality of intense homeliness which neither the Byzantine, with his abstract intensity and other-worldly mysticism, nor the humanist painter, with his essentially human conception of Christ, had ever quite captured. In particular, one can find a close parallel between Jamini Roy’s studies of Christ and the anonymous French folk- painters of the 12th century whom Gauguin copied. Whilst subordinating the structure of the face, to decorative rhythm, the artist, in both cases, depends on isolated facial features (the eyes, the mouth and the beard) to convey a quality of homeliness and human warmth. Bishnu Dey and John Irwin , rpt. in Jamini Roy, 1944; p.26 Detailed Artist Biography osianama.com/artists/ jamini-roy