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The Bengal School and CulturalNationalism6Company PaintingArt in India had a different purpose prior to the coming ofthe British. It could be seen as statues on temple walls,miniature paintings that often illustrated manuscripts,decoration on the walls of mud houses in villages, amongmany other examples. With the colonial rule around theeighteenth century, the English were charmed by differentmanners and customs of people of all ranks, tropical floraand fauna, and varying locales. Partly for documentationand partly for artistic reasons, many English officerscommissioned local artists to paint scenes around them toget a better idea of the natives. The paintings were largelymade on paper by local artists, some of whom had migratedfrom erstwhile courts of Murshidabad, Lucknow or Delhi. Toplease their new patrons, they had to adapt their traditionalway of painting to documentthe world around them. Thismeant that they had to relymore on close observation,a striking feature of theEuropean art, rather thanmemory and rule books, asseen in traditional art. It isthis mixture of traditional andEuropean style of paintingthat came to be known as theCompany School of Painting.This style was not only popularamong the British in India buteven in Britain, where albums,consisting a set of paintingswere much in demand.Ghulam Ali Khan,Group of Courtesans,Company Painting, 1800–1825.San Diego Museum of Art,California, USA2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 8501 Sep 2020 03:54:46 PM
86AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART —PART IIRaja Ravi VarmaRaja Ravi Varma,Krishna as envoy,1906. NGMA, New Delhi, IndiaThis style declined with the entry of photographyin India in the mid–nineteenth century as cameraoffered a better way of documentation. What,However, flourished in the art schools set up bythe British was the academic style of oil paintingthat used a European medium to depict Indiansubject matter. The most successful examplesof this type of painting were found away fromthese art schools. They are best seen in theworks produced by self-taught artist, Raja RaviVarma of the Travancore Court in Kerala. Byimitating copies of European paintings popularin Indian palaces, he mastered the style ofacademic realism and used it to depict scenesfrom popular epics like the Ramayana andMahabharata. They became so popular thatmany of his paintings were copied as oleographsand were sold in market. They even entered people’s homes ascalendar images. With the rise of nationalism in India by theend of the nineteenth century, this academic style embracedby Raja Ravi Varma came to be looked down upon as foreignand too western to show Indian myths and history. It isamidst such nationalist thinking that the Bengal School of Artemerged in the first decade of the twentieth century.The Bengal SchoolThe term ‘Bengal School of Art’ is not fully accurate. It is truethat the first move to create a modern, nationalist schoolhappened in Bengal but it was not restricted to this regionalone. It was an art movement and a style of painting thatoriginated in Calcutta, the centre of British power, but laterinfluenced many artists in different parts of the country,including Shantiniketan, where India’s first national artschool was founded. It was associated with the nationalistmovement (Swadeshi) and spearheaded by AbanindranathTagore (1871–1951). Abanindranath enjoyed the support ofBritish administrator and principal of the Calcutta Schoolof Art, E. B. Havell (1861–1934). Both Abanindranath andHavell were critical of colonial Art Schools and the manner inwhich European taste in art was being imposed on Indians.They firmly believed in creating a new type of painting that2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 8614-12-2021 15:23:41
THE BENGAL SCHOOL AND CULTURAL NATIONALISM87was Indian not only in subject matter but also in style. Forthem, Mughal and Pahari miniatures, for example, weremore important sources of inspiration, rather than either theCompany School of Painting or academic style taught in thecolonial Art Schools.Abanindranath Tagore and E. B. HavellThe year 1896 was important in the Indian history of visualarts. E. B. Havell and Abanindranath Tagore saw a need toIndianise art education in the country. This began in theGovernment Art School, Calcutta, now, Government Collegeof Art and Craft, Kolkata. Similar art schools were establishedin Lahore, Bombay and Madras but their primary focus wason crafts like metalwork, furniture and curios. However,the one in Calcutta was more inclined towards fine arts.Havell and Abanindranath Tagore designed a curriculumto include and encourage technique and themes in Indianart traditions. Abanindranath’s Journey’s End shows theinfluence of Mughal and Pahari miniatures, and his desire tocreate an Indian style in painting.Art historian Partha Mitter writes, “The first generation ofthe students of Abanindranath engaged in recovering the lostlanguage of Indian art.” To create awareness that modernIndians could benefit from this rich past, Abanindranathwas the main artist and creator of an important journal,Indian Society of Oriental Art. In this manner, he was alsothe first major supporter of Swadeshi values in Indian art,which best manifested in the creation of Bengal School ofArt. This school set the stage for the development of modernIndian painting. The new direction opened by Abanindranathwas followed by many younger artists like KshitindranathMajumdar (Rasa-Lila) and M. R. Chughtai (Radhika).Shantiniketan — Early modernismNandalal Bose, a student of Abanindranath Tagore, wasinvited by poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore tohead the painting department in the newly establishedKala Bhavana. Kala Bhavana was India’s first national artschool. It was part of the Visva-Bharati University foundedby Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan. At Kala Bhavana,Nandalal founded the intellectual and artistic milieu to createan Indian style in art. By paying attention to the folk art formsthat he saw around in Shantiniketan, he began to focus on2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 8701 Sep 2020 03:54:46 PM
88Nandalal Bose, Dhaki, Haripura Posters,1937. NGMA, New Delhi, IndiaK. Venkatappa, Rama’s marriage,1914. Private Collection, IndiaAN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART —PART IIthe language of art. He also illustrated primersin Bengali with woodcuts and understoodthe role of art in teaching new ideas. For thisreason, Mahatma Gandhi invited him to paintpanels that were put on display at the Congresssession at Haripura in 1937. Famously calledthe ‘Haripura Posters’, they depicted ordinaryrural folks busy in various activities — amusician drumming, a farmer tilling, a womanchurning milk, and so on. They were paintedas lively colourful sketchy figures and shownas contributing their labour to nation building.These posters echoed with Gandhi’s socialistvision of including marginalised sections ofIndian society through art.Kala Bhavana, the institution where Bosetaught art, inspired many young artists tocarry forward this nationalist vision. It becamea training ground for many artists, whotaught art in different parts of the country.K. Venkatappa in South India being aprominent example. They wanted art to reachout to a wider public rather than only the elite,anglicised class of people.Jamini Roy is a unique example of modernIndian artist, who after undergoing academictraining in the colonial Art School rejectedit only to adopt the flat and colourful style offolk painting seen in villages. He wanted hispaintings to be simple and easy to duplicateto reach a wider public and based on themeslike women and children, specifically, and rurallife, generally.However, the struggle between the Indianand European taste in art continued as seen inthe art policy of the British Raj. For example,the project for mural decorations for Lutyen’sDelhi buildings went to the students of BombaySchool of Art, trained in realistic studies by itsPrincipal, Gladstone Solomon. On the otherhand, the Bengal School artists were allowedto decorate the Indian House in London underclose British supervision.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 8801 Sep 2020 03:54:47 PM
THE BENGAL SCHOOL AND CULTURAL NATIONALISM89Pan-Asianism and ModernismThe colonial art policy had created a divide between thosewho liked the European academic style and those who favouredIndian style. But following the Partition of Bengal in 1905, theSwadeshi movement was at its peak and it reflected in ideasabout art. Ananda Coomaraswamy, an important art historian,wrote about Swadeshi in art and joined hands with a Japanesenationalist, Kakuzo Okakura, who was visiting RabindranathTagore in Calcutta. He came to India with his ideas aboutpan-Asianism, by which he wanted to unite India with othereastern nations and fight against western imperialism. TwoJapanese artists accompanied him to Calcutta, who went toShantiniketan to teach wash technique of painting to Indianstudents as an alternative to western oil painting.If, on one hand, pan-Asianism was gaining popularity,ideas about modern European art also travelled to India.Hence, the year 1922 may be regarded as a remarkableone, when an important exhibition of works by Paul Klee,Kandinsky and other artists, who were part of the BauhausSchool in Germany, travelled to Calcutta. These Europeanartists had rejected academic realism, which appealed to theSwadeshi artists. They created a more abstract language ofart, consisting of squares, circles, lines and colour patches.For the first time, Indian artists and the public had a directencounter with modern art of this kind. It is in the paintingsby Gaganendranath Tagore, brother of AbanindranathTagore, that the influence of modern western style ofpaintings can be clearly seen. He made several paintingsusing Cubist style, in which building interiors were createdout of geometric patterns. Besides, he was deeply interestedin making caricatures, in which he often made fun of richBengalis blindly following the European style of living.Different Concepts of Modernism: Western and IndianThe divide between anglicists and orientalists, as mentionedearlier, was not based on race. Take the case of the Bengaliintellectual, Benoy Sarkar, who sided with the anglicistsand considered modernism that was growing in Europe asauthentic in an article, ‘The Futurism of Young Asia’. Forhim, the Oriental Bengal School of Art was regressive andanti-modern. On the other hand, it was E. B. Havell, anEnglishman, who was in favour of return to native art to2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 8901 Sep 2020 03:54:47 PM
90AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART —PART IIcreate a true modern Indian art. It is in thiscontext that we have to view his collaborationwith Abanindranath Tagore.Amrita Sher-Gil, whom we will discuss inthe next chapter, is a perfect example of themeeting of both these points of view. She usedthe kind of style that the Bauhaus exhibitionshowed to depict Indian scenes.Modern art in India can be best understoodas a result of the conflict between colonialismand nationalism. Colonialism introduced newinstitutions of art like art schools, exhibitiongalleries, art magazines and art societies.Nationalist artists, while accepting thesechanges, continued to assert more Indian tastein art and even accepted a larger Asian identityfor a while. This legacy was going to leave adeep impact on the later history of modernIndian art. Therefore, it will keep moving frominternationalism, i.e., draw ideas from the West,and indigenous, i.e., to be true to one’s ownlegacy and tradition.Amrita Sher-Gil, Camels, 1941.NGMA, New Delhi, IndiaEXERCISE1. Collect a local newspaper of the past two weeks. Selectimages and text from these that you consider importantin the life of modern democratic state of India. With thehelp of these visuals and texts, compile an album thatnarrates the story of an independent sovereign India in thecontemporary world.2. Comment on the importance of the Bengal School artists inthe making of a national style of art?3. Write your view on any one painting by AbanindranathTagore.4. Which art traditions of India inspired the Bengal Schoolartists?5. What were the themes that Jamini Roy painted after heabandoned the academic style of painting?2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9001 Sep 2020 03:54:47 PM
THE BENGAL SCHOOL AND CULTURAL NATIONALISMTILLEROF THE91SOILThis is one of the panels made by Nandalal Bose in 1938for the Haripura Congress. In this panel, a farmer is shownploughing a field — the daily activity of a common man and ina village. To capture the essence of village life in his Haripurapanels, Bose made pen-and-ink brush studies of localvillagers. He used thick tempera in a bold cursory style andbroad brushwork. This technique and style was reminiscentof the folk art practice of patuas or scroll painters. Folkstyle is purposely used to represent the rural life. It alsoconveys political statement of Gandhi’s idea of village. Thebackground of the poster has an arch. The strong senses offormal design, bold colour scheme, and their blend of natureand convention in this panel reflect Bose’s inspiration fromAjanta wall paintings and sculptures. More than 400 posterswere prepared at Kala Bhavana under the supervision of Bose,who was influenced by the idea of Gandhi. These postersplace common people in the centre of nation building. Boseutilised art to build the nation’s moral character.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9101 Sep 2020 03:54:47 PM
92AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART —PART IIRASA-LILAThis is a watercolour painting in wash technique portrayingthe divine life of Sri Krishna made by KshitindranathMajumdar (1891–1975). He was one of the early studentsof Abanindranath Tagore, who carried forward the washtradition with some deviations. Rustic, thin, slender figures,modest gestures, idyllic settings and delicate watercoloursexpress his stylistic features. He has painted mythologicaland religious subjects. Man Bhanjan of Radha, Sakhiand Radha, Lakshmi and Birth of Sri Chaitanya are fewexamples of his extraordinary power of expression inspiredby his understanding of religious concepts as a follower ofthe Bhakti Marga. In this painting, Krishna is dancing withRadha and sakhis, and the background of trees creates asimple village atmosphere as illustrated in the BhagvataPurana and Gita Govinda. Figures and their cloths are drawnwith simple, flowing, delicate lines. The sublime moods ofcharacters are captured well. Krishna and gopis are drawnwith same proportion. Thus, humans and God are broughton the same level.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9201 Sep 2020 03:54:47 PM
THE BENGAL SCHOOL AND CULTURAL NATIONALISM93RADHIKAThis is a wash and tempera painting made on paper byAbdul Rehman Chughtai (1899 –1975). He was a descendantof Ustad Ahmed, the chief architect of Shahjahan. He wasalso the designer of the Jama Masjid and Red Fort in Delhiand Taj Mahal in Agra. He was influenced by AbanindranathTagore, Gaganendranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose.Chughtai experimented with wash technique and infuseda distinct character of calligraphic line, typical in Mughalmanuscripts and old Persian paintings. It gives a deepersensuous quality to his paintings. In this painting, Radhikais portrayed walking away from a lighted lamp in a gloomybackground as if in a state of trance or remorse. The subjectis based on Hindu mythology. He also painted charactersfrom legends, folklore and history of the Indo-Islamic, Rajputand Mughal world. The light and shade of the backgroundrepresent the finest heights of simplification. Chughtai hadstylistic affinities with renowned Chinese and Japanesemasters. The character is drawn gracefully, with a lyricalquality of calligraphy in every line. It is as if a poem findsvisual form. Other works, which carry these poetic qualities,are Gloomy Radhika, Omar Khayyam, Dream, Hiraman Tota,Lady under a Tree, Musician Lady, Man behind a Tomb, Ladybeside a Grave and Lady lighting a Lamp.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9301 Sep 2020 03:54:47 PM
94AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART —PART IICITYIN THENIGHTThis is a watercolour painting made byGaganendranath Tagore (1869 –1938)in 1922. He was one of the earlier Indianpainters, who made use of language andsyntax of Cubism to render his ideas.The inner experiences of turbulenceare externalised through a blend ofallegorical and formal, transformingthe static geometry of AnalyticalCubism into an expressive apparatus.He softened Cubism’s formal geometrywith a seductive profile, shadow oroutline of human form. He visualisedthe mysterious world of his imaginarycities like Dwarka (Lord Krishna’slegendary abode) or Swarnapuri(The Golden City) through multipleviewpoints, multi-faceted shapes andjagged edges of Cubism. He painted aninterplay of diamond-shaped planesand prismatic colours, resulting infragmented luminosity to render themountain ranges of the city. Zigzagplanes together are able to create a tightformal structure of the painting. Thepainting is mysteriously illuminated by artificial light, oneof the features of theatre. It shows his involvement with hisuncle Rabindranath Tagore’s play staged in their house. Thepainter has taken many references of stage props, partitionscreens, overlapping planes and artificial stage lighting.Endless corridors, pillars, halls, half-open doors, screens,illuminated windows, staircases and vaults are painted onthe same plane to conjure a magic world.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9401 Sep 2020 03:54:48 PM
THE BENGAL SCHOOL AND CULTURAL NATIONALISM95RAMA VANQUISHING THE PRIDETHE OCEANOFThis is a Puranic (ancient mythologicalstories) theme painted by Raja RaviVarma. He was one of the first Indianpainters to use oil paint and masterthe art of lithographic reproduction formythological subject. These paintingsare, generally, large ones, depicting ahistoric moment or scene from an epicor a classical text, painted in the midstof a dramatic action. It is intended to benoble, momentous and emotional. Thisscene is taken from Valmiki Ramayana,where Rama needs to build a bridge insouthern India to the island of Lanka forhis army to cross the ocean. He praysto the God of Ocean, Varuna, to permithim to cross the ocean but Varuna doesnot respond. Then, in anger, Ramastands to shoot his fiery arrow into theocean. Immediately, Varuna appearsand appeases Rama. The event depictedin this painting sequentially serves as aspringboard for the next one. The storyunfolds itself as each painting leapsto the succeeding one, covering in the process not only themajor moments in the lives of Rama and Sita but the entireepic. Varma also painted Release of Ahalya, Rama Breakingthe Sacred Bow of Siva before his Marriage to Sita, Rama, Sitaand Laksmana Crossing the Saryu, Ravana abducting Sitaand Opposed by Jatayu, Sita in Ashoka Grove, The Coronationof Rama, etc.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9501 Sep 2020 03:54:48 PM
96AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART —PART IIWOMANWITHCHILDThis is a gouache painting on paper made byJamini Roy (1887–1972) in 1940. He was calledthe father of the folk renaissance in India, whocreated an alternative vision of modern Indianidentity. In the mid –1920s, he travelled to thecountryside of Bengal to collect folk paintings(pats) and learn from folk artisans. He wantedto learn from the expressive power of theirlines. In this painting, a mother and her childare rendered with bold simplifications andthick outlines with sweeping brush strokes.The painting exudes a crude vigour hithertounknown in Indian art. Figures are colouredin dull yellow and brick-red background,emulating the terracotta relief of his homevillage in Bankura. The two-dimensional natureof the painting is derived from pat paintingsand his search for simplicity and pure formis visible. Roy borrowed volume, rhythm,decorative clarity and instrumentality of the patin his artworks. To achieve and learn the purityof the pat, he first made many monochromebrush drawings, and then, gradually, moved tobasic seven colours applied with tempera. Heused Indian red, yellow ocher, cadmium green,vermilion, charcoal gray, cobalt blue and whitemade from organic material, such as rockdust,tamarind seeds, mercury powder, alluvial mud,indigo and common chalk. He used lamp blackto outline the drawings and started making his own canvaswith home-spun fabric (pats used paper or cloth or bakedpaper). Roy used the notion of village community as a weaponof resistance to colonial rule and a political act of makinglocal signify national.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9601 Sep 2020 03:54:48 PM
THE BENGAL SCHOOL AND CULTURAL NATIONALISM97JOURNEY’S ENDMade by Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951) in 1913, thispainting is in watercolour. Abanindranath Tagore was seenas a father figure of nationalist and modernism of art in India.He revived certain aspects of Indian and oriental traditionsof paintings in terms of themes, style and techniques, andinvented the wash painting technique. The wash techniqueyields a soft, misty and impressionistic landscape. Thisquality of hazy and atmospheric effects of the wash areutilised to be suggestive or evocative of an end of a life.In this painting, a collapsed camel is shown in redbackground of dusk and in that sense it personifies the endof a journey through the end of a day. Abanindranath tried tocapture the portrait and narration with the help of symbolicaesthetics on one hand and literary allusions on the other.The physical features of the camel rendered appropriately infine lines and delicate tones, and its sensory texture leadsus to the meaning of the painting. Abanindranath has alsopainted The Forest, Coming of Night, Mountain Traveller,Queen of the Forest and a series of 45 paintings based onThe Arabian Nights.2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9701 Sep 2020 03:54:49 PM
98AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART —PART II2022-231 6.Bengali Painting.indd 9801 Sep 2020 03:54:49 PM
language of Indian art." To create awareness that modern Indians could benefit from this rich past, Abanindranath was the main artist and creator of an important journal, Indian Society of Oriental Art. In this manner, he was also the first major supporter of Swadeshi values in Indian art, which best manifested in the creation of Bengal School of
