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Saffronart | Evening Sale
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF AN IMPORTANT FAMILY, NEW DELHI
60
GAGANENDRANATH TAGORE
(1867 ‒ 1938)
Untitled
Watercolour on card pasted on board
8 x 7 in (20.3 x 17.8 cm)
Rs 15,00,000 ‒ 20,00,000
$ 22,730 ‒ 30,305
NON‒EXPORTABLE NATIONAL ART TREASURE
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from the artist’s family
Private Collection, Mumbai
161
This rare sketchbook of preparatory
drawings and studies offers glimpses into
Gaganendranath Tagore’s artistic process.
Drawings include characters from
Bhodhor
Bahadur
, a series of fairy tales for children
written by Tagore in the late 1920s - the
only literary work left behind by the artist.
Tagore, renowned for his watercolour
paintings of Bengal and the Himalayas, is
believed to have produced 500 cartoons,
published in three volumes:
Birup Bajra
(Strange Thunderbolts) and
Adbhut
Lok
(Realm of the Absurd) published in
1917, and
Nava Hullod
(Reform Screams)
published in 1921. Art critic R Siva Kumar
lauds them as “celebrated examples
of their kind.” Writer, and founder and
former editor of
Marg
, Mulk Raj Anand,
observed that Tagore “sought to absorb
world influences into the service of his
own peculiar private visions of forms, and
as a commentator through his cartoons
on current affairs, he displays a depth
of understanding about the mental and
mortal crises in which India has been
involved and an extraordinary technical
virtuosity as a craftsman.” (Pulinbihari Sen
ed.,
Gaganendranath
Tagore,
Kolkata: The
Indian Society of Oriental Art, 1972, p. 55)
Gaganendranath Tagore, 26 August 1892
Reproduced from Samik Bandyopadhyay ed.,
Paintings of Gaganendranath Tagore
, Kolkata: Pratikshan, 2015
With kind permission from Pratikshan