Important Notice

Born in the Bankura district of West Bengal in 1887, Jamini Roy was trained in academic realism at the Government School of Art, Calcutta, at the age of 16 and went on to become a prolific portrait painter early on in his career. However, the strong wave of nationalism that swept India in the early 20th century urged him to question and reflect upon his approach towards art. Dismissing the prevailing Western academic painting style as well as... Born in the Bankura district of West Bengal in 1887, Jamini Roy was trained in academic realism at the Government School of Art, Calcutta, at the age of 16 and went on to become a prolific portrait painter early on in his career. However, the strong wave of nationalism that swept India in the early 20th century urged him to question and reflect upon his approach towards art. Dismissing the prevailing Western academic painting style as well as the revivalist Bengal School movement led by Abanindranath Tagore, he expressed a desire to create works that were relatable to a larger Indian audience. He turned to Indian artistic traditions and tribal art forms and developed a signature style that accentuated the linear expression of Indian folk art, which he would become best known for.

Between 1920 and 1930, Roy experimented with the motifs, symbols, and chromatic range of Bengali art traditions, especially the flatness and narrative quality of art forms such as pattachitra, Kalighat scroll paintings, and terracotta objects from Bankura, his birthplace. As seen in the present lot, he developed a distinctive style defined by flat colours, rhythmic bold lines, iconic frontality, and decoration. “His experiments with forms continued for he well realised that forms bear the testimony to a people, their civilization and their history, etc. For further simplification and evolving his own idiom he also drew inspiration from child art. Instead of oil he religiously used traditional pigments from vegetable and mineral sources.” (Debashis Dhar, “Jamini Roy: A Martyr to his own Mastery,” Jamini Roy: National Art Treasure, Kolkata: Purba Publications, 2015, p. 79) Roy also increasingly preferred working with tempera from local pigments, binder, and water. This reconfiguration of style led him to explore a range of themes including Hindu mythology (as seen in the present lot which depicts the figure of Krishna), Santhal women, the life of Christ, and Indian folklore.

Thus, Jamini Roy’s oeuvre established a completely new form of modernism in Indian art. Art historian Sona Datta asserts, “Jamini Roy signifies not just the advent of modern Indian art but the modern Indian artist.” (Sona Datta, Urban Patua: The Art of Jamini Roy, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2010, p. 91)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site