Important Notice

At a time when nationalist sentiments pushed Indian artists to propagate the idea of Swadeshi through art, Jamini Roy portrayed what he saw as the purity of village life. This thematic engagement rose from his need to search for a pictorial idiom that was uniquely his own, and slightly disengaged with mainstream art movements. Women thus appeared frequently in his works as motifs, symbolising the admiration he held for the ways of village folk.... At a time when nationalist sentiments pushed Indian artists to propagate the idea of Swadeshi through art, Jamini Roy portrayed what he saw as the purity of village life. This thematic engagement rose from his need to search for a pictorial idiom that was uniquely his own, and slightly disengaged with mainstream art movements. Women thus appeared frequently in his works as motifs, symbolising the admiration he held for the ways of village folk. Among his recurrent themes were women dancing, bathing, holding a child – perhaps inspired by the very common 'Mother and Child' themes seen in Western art, or huddled in groups, facing the viewer.

Here, we see a close-up of a woman huddled with her knees together. It echoes the style of Kalighat pats that he had briefly turned to for seeking a personal technique. The elongated eyes and thick lines tapering towards the ends hint at this style, though Roy adapted it to suit his subject matter. He chose to work with tempera and gouaches, working with a colour palette that was uniquely Indian. Roy has simulated the look of a photo frame by enclosing his subject within thickly-drawn borders.

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