Page 42 - Eye of the beholder

aesthetic of his form acquiring beauty and not sentiments, thus enabling him to produce a large number of works of the landscape around Santiniketan. Having moved away from the mystifying tones of the wash technique, Nandalal’s works of the 1930s and 1940s were replete with the life of his environment. As he had professed that he now saw his Shiva in the trees, Krishna in the cowherd, Arjun in the local archer and the Sabari in the Santhal women. His “Evening Lamp” rendered in tempera in 1931 and “New Clouds” painted in 1937 bear testimony to the rhythmic spontaneous strokes of his brush and the vigour of life that manifests in the painting of New Clouds where the village women are rushing home to avoid the imminent thunder showers.
In the collection is the work on paper rendered in tempera of a “Woman Carrying the Pitcher”, which marks Nandalal weaving the strands of the old with the new. The form of the woman is sculpturesque with pinched waist and large bosom that defined the aesthetic of feminine beauty in India’s plastic tradition. But the woman’s sartorial attire resonates to the local village tradition particularly the design of the free rhythmic diagonal strokes of her saree juxtaposed with the circular dots had the saliency of folk tradition. Her skin painted in green arouses the nostalgia of a yakshi. Nandalal has represented the woman a charming beauty carrying a pitcher of water, white lotus plucked fresh from the water and her luxuriant hair cascading down on her back. Her meditative eyes are lost in a reverie. In the thin transparent drape of her saree clinging to her body seductively is the resonance of the wet semi clad women in Hemen Mazumdar’s paintings. Nevertheless it is possible to trace here the influence of Ajanta painting particularly the lithe bodily charm.
Since no date is available of this particular work, it also has consanguity to Nandalal’s Haripura Posters which he had designed in 1937 for the National Congress conference on the request of Mahatma Gandhi. Here Nandalal had recreated the rhythm of a typical village life representing the daily chores of the women, activities of a barber, tailor, ear cleaner, an archer, women cooking, playing with the baby, farmer busy in the field. The style was spontaneous, organic and synoptic capturing the essence of activity in a lively and vivid manner. Many of these saliencies manifest in his painting of “Woman with a Pitcher”.
SELECT REFRENCE:
Partha Mitter, “Triumph of Nationalism: India’s Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-1947”, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2007
Tapati Guha Thakurta, “Visualizing the Nation; Nandalal Bose: A New National Art for the People” an article in the Journal of Arts and Ideas Number 27-28, Tulika Print Communication Services, New Delhi, March 1995
A large corpus of Nandalal's work was donated to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) and to the Vishwa Bharati Archives in Shantiniketan. This, coupled with the fact that Nandalal's name is included in the list of heritage artists, means that it is difficult to come across his works these days. This makes this work all the more important as a part of my collection.
This work has an unusual shape, rather large size, and uses a very limited palette. The work came to my collection in 2013 from a Kolkata based dealer. The authenticity of the work is backed up by a certification and authentication from notable art historian and critic, Sandip Sarkar.
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