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Saffronart | Evening Sale
58
RAMGOPAL VIJAIVARGIYA
(1905 ‒ 2003)
Untitled
Signed in Devnagari (lower right)
Watercolour on paper
43.25 x 24.5 in (110 x 62 cm)
Rs 15,00,000 ‒ 20,00,000
$ 22,730 ‒ 30,305
Born in Baler, Rajasthan in 1906, Ramgopal Vijaivargiya found
his inspiration from the Bengal School of painting though he
remained wholly unattached to any particular school of Indian
art. In the foreword to
The Art of Vijaivargiya
(1935), RamChandra
Tandan wrote: “The Art of Vijaivargiya is noteworthy not only
because of its actual achievement, which is considerable, but also
because of its great promise: for the artist is still young and full
of confidence in himself.” (R C Tandan,
The Art of Vijaivargiya
,
Allahabad: Allahabad Block Works, p. 4) At the time, Ramgopal
Vijaivargiya was 30, and had sold nearly 1000 paintings in the
small space of the Indian art world of the 1930s. R C Tandan
noticed his talent and printed an album of a few select works
for the Hindustani Academy in Allahabad, which were later
displayed at exhibitions in Calcutta and Bombay. Vijaivargiya
later headed the Rajasthan Kala Mandir and Rajasthan School
of Art from 1945 to 1966, and went on to win several state and
national awards.
Vijaivargiya had a “strong individualistic sense” as a student of
Hindu mythology, and his themes “...have a wide range, grading
from the spiritual at one end to the almost erotic at the other,
all characterised in their execution by a certain suppleness
and grace of lines.” (Tandan
,
p. 4) The present lot contains the
graceful lines and allusions to miniature painting and mythology
for which Vijaivargiya’s work is acclaimed.
Ramgopal Vijaivargiya
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