Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Fine Arts | February 2019

24 | Osian’s – Connoisseurs of Art KALIGHAT PATUA PAINTINGS ASI Registered Artwork | Non-Exportable Item Three rare, important & early period Kalighat Paintings from the Niranjan Niyogi Family Collection directly acquired from the Maa-Kali Temple at Kalighat during the 1950s Provenance Formerly in the Niranjan Niyogi Family Collection, who in turn acquired a set of twenty-four Kalighat Patua Paintings (three of which are being sold as Lots 1 to 3) from Gopal Chandra Haldar, Sevayat of the Ma-Kali Temple at Kalighat. Niranjan Niyogi (1884- 1968) was a dedicated bhakt of the Goddess and had his own family temple in Tangail (modern day Bangladesh). These paintings were thereafter gifted to their son Amitabha Niyogi (former Chief Secretary of Government of West Bengal), and thereafter inherited by his son Ranjan Niyogi. These paintings were part of a Victoria Memorial Hall Special Lecture Presentation ‘Kalighat Paintings: New Perspectives’ by Tagore Research Scholar Anjan Sen on 7th March 2016. 1 European Seated on an Elephant and Hunting a Cheetah with Gun Diluted earth pigment on handmade paper, nd 10.9 x 17.6 in (27.6 x 44.8 cm) INR 300,000 – 450,000 US$ 4,225 – 6,338 Full image on p. 2 A British Soldier on Horse with Flag Diluted earth pigment on handmade paper, nd 10.9 x 17.8 in (27.6 x 45.2 cm) INR 300,000 – 450,000 US$ 4,225 – 6,338 Full image on p. 3 A European Sahib Seated on a Chair and Smoking Hookah Diluted earth pigment on handmade paper, nd 10.8 x 17.6 in (27.4 x 44.7 cm) INR 300,000 – 450,000 US$ 4,225 – 6,338 Full image on p. Amitabha Niyogi with H.R.H. Duke of Edinburgh and Deputy British High Commissioner Stephen Miles Niyogi Family at their Havelock Sahib’s Bungalow (Cuttack), neighbours to Hemendranath Mazumdar during the mid 1930s Kalighat painting acquired a fresh significance. Its quality of simplification was recognised as an outstanding merit since by this means figures were imbued with new dignity and grandeur. The rhythmical verve of the pictures, their exhilarating colours and strong contours seemed part of that ‘search of intensity’ which in France had already captured modern painting. For one outstanding artist trained at the Government School of Art, Calcutta- Jamini Roy - its discovery precipitated a style of painting which, while remaining linear and monumental, was to prove even more subtly expressive of Indian sensibility. Later still, in about the year 1940, its rapid and summary brushwork let a younger Artist Gopal Ghose, to develop a style of impulsive expressionism. Such influences may, for the moment, appear to have been exhausted, but unless there is a sudden revolution in aesthetic taste, Kalighat painting is likely to be valued for many years to come as one of the most original and authentic contributions made by Bengal to Indian painting and culture. – W.G. Archer. Kalighat Paintings. London: For Victoria and Albert Museum, by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1971;. p.16 Illustrative Reference Refer to black & white full page illustration - Fig. I; p.29 - for artwork from the same series, rpt. in W.G. Archer. Bazaar Paintings of Calcutta: The Style of Kalighat. London: For Victoria & Albert Museum by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1953. Refer to black & white full page illustration - Plate I; p.130 - for artwork from the same series, rpt. in W.G. Archer. Kalighat Paintings. London: Victoria & Albert Museum, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1971.