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Nandalal Bose’s drawing skills are on full display in this exquisite
rendition of Nataraja. Bose would have been familiar with the well
known early Chola sculpture of Nataraja from Tiruvalangadu in the
Government Museum in what was then Madras. His study of the
subject is evident in this drawing, where he adds the flaming ovoid
aureole to complete the one which is missing in the Chola bronze. Its
distinct shape is essential to the iconography that defines the Nataraja
in the present lot.
The importance of this particular representation of the Nataraja figure
is underlined by another drawing by Bose, which he made for an
illustrated edition of the Constitution of India, published in the 1950s.
Bose’s drawing of Nataraja in an illustrated edition of the Constitution of India was also based on
the iconic Chola bronze in the Madras Museum collection.
Nataraja, Early Chola, 1000 AD, Tiruvalangadu
Government Museum, Madras.
Reproduced from C Sivaramamurti,
South Indian Bronzes,
New
Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1981, pl. 24
55
NANDALAL BOSE
(1882 ‒ 1966)
Untitled
Signed in Bengali (lower right)
Ink and pencil on rice paper pasted on linen
53.5 x 45.5 in (135.6 x 115.7 cm)
Rs 30,00,000 ‒ 40,00,000
$ 47,620 ‒ 63,495
NON‒EXPORTABLE NATIONAL ART TREASURE
PROVENANCE:
From the collection of the artist
Inherited by his eldest son, Sri Bishwaroop Bose
Gifted to Anshuman Hui, Mumbai
Private Collection, New Delhi