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Assignment-8 Paintings by The Artists Belonging To The Nationalist School of Bengal Art

The Bengal School of Art was an early 20th century art movement that originated in Bengal during British rule. It promoted a distinct Indian modernist style by synthesizing folk art, Hindu imagery, and depictions of rural life. The movement arose in response to Company Paintings, which presented oversimplified Indian culture for British audiences. Led initially by Abanindranath Tagore, the Bengal School was a form of cultural resistance that helped foster Indian nationalism. It gained support from British administrators like Ernest Havell and focused on developing uniquely Indian artistic traditions. Major Bengal School artists included Nandalal Bose, who had a close relationship with Gandhi, and Asit Kumar Haldar, a pioneer in advancing Indian modernism

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Rashi Gambhir
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281 views

Assignment-8 Paintings by The Artists Belonging To The Nationalist School of Bengal Art

The Bengal School of Art was an early 20th century art movement that originated in Bengal during British rule. It promoted a distinct Indian modernist style by synthesizing folk art, Hindu imagery, and depictions of rural life. The movement arose in response to Company Paintings, which presented oversimplified Indian culture for British audiences. Led initially by Abanindranath Tagore, the Bengal School was a form of cultural resistance that helped foster Indian nationalism. It gained support from British administrators like Ernest Havell and focused on developing uniquely Indian artistic traditions. Major Bengal School artists included Nandalal Bose, who had a close relationship with Gandhi, and Asit Kumar Haldar, a pioneer in advancing Indian modernism

Uploaded by

Rashi Gambhir
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© © All Rights Reserved
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SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING


18LEM110L – INDIAN ART FORM
REG NO: RA1811003010227 NAME: Rashi Gambhir

ASSIGNMENT-8

Paintings by the artists belonging to the Nationalist


School of Bengal Art.

The Bengal School of Art commonly referred as Bengal School, [1] was an art movement
and a style of Indian painting that originated in Bengal, primarily Kolkata and
Shantiniketan, and flourished throughout the Indian subcontinent, during the British Raj
in the early 20th century. Also known as 'Indian style of painting' in its early days, it was
associated with Indian nationalism (swadeshi) and led by Abanindranath Tagore (1871-
1951), but was also promoted and supported by British arts administrators like E. B.
Havell, the principal of the Government College of Art, Kolkata from 1896; eventually it
led to the development of the modern Indian painting.

Originating in Calcutta and Shantiniketan, the Bengal School of Art promoted a


distinctly Indian modernism which blossomed throughout India during the British Raj
of the early 20th century. By synthesizing folk art, Indian painting traditions, Hindu
imagery, indigenous materials and depictions of contemporary rural life, artists of the
Bengal School of Art celebrate humanism and bring a dynamic voice to Indian
identity, freedom, and liberation. Ahead of Sotheby's Modern & Contemporary South
Asian Art sale (18 March, New York) discover more about this formative artistic
movement.

1. The Bengal School grew out of swadeshi.

In the early part of the 20th century, Indian nationalist leaders promoted the concept of
swadeshi, a movement of self-reliance in the face of British colonization that was
specifically effective in the province of Bengal. Swadeshi called for social, cultural,
political – and most ardently economic – reforms that would break India from the
clutches of British rule. Boycotts of British manufacturers were organized in favour of
domestic and local products, which would invigorate Indian industry; cultural movements
were to dispose of British or Western literature and visual arts, and to produce works of
uniquely Indian qualities, turning to Hindu themes and ancient Indian painting styles.
SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
18LEM110L – INDIAN ART FORM
REG NO: RA1811003010227 NAME: Rashi Gambhir

NINDRANATH TAGORE, UNTITLED (KATLA FISH) . ESTIMATE $20,000–


30,000 IN SOTHEBY'S MODERN & CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIAN ART
SALE (18 MARCH, NEW YORK) .

2. The Bengal School was a form of resistance that gave rise to Indian nationalism.
During the British Raj, when the British crown ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1858
to 1947, traditional Indian painting conventions and styles had fallen out of popularity,
largely because they did not appeal to the tastes of British collectors. In addition to the
European painting techniques and subjects that were taught in artistic academies,
Company Paintings were widely promoted, which catered to British sensibilities.
Company Paintings presented Indian subjects of indigenous plant life or traditional garb
and rituals, through both the European gaze and conventions of painting. Rather than
celebrating Indian cultural traditions, it simplified them into exotica. The Bengal School
arose to counteract such imagery, by turning to Mughal influences, and Rajasthani and
Pahari styles that presented elegant scenes of distinctly Indian traditions and daily life.
SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
18LEM110L – INDIAN ART FORM
REG NO: RA1811003010227 NAME: Rashi Gambhir

MUKUL DEY, MK GANDHI, SABARMATI . ESTIMATE $1,000–2,000


SOTHEBY'S MODERN & CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIAN ART SALE (18
MARCH, NEW YORK).

3. There were contemporary British supporters of the Bengal School.


Although the Bengal School was a direct refusal of British artistic traditions, one of its
major founders was Ernest Binfield Havell, an English art historian, teacher, arts
administrator, and author. Havell urged his students to turn to Mughal miniatures as
influence rather than British models of production. While principal of the Government
School of Art in Calcutta, Havell helped founding artists of the Bengal School such as
Abanindranath Tagore and his sister Sunayani Devi fully develop the tenets and style of
the movement and promote its dissemination through educational systems.
SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
18LEM110L – INDIAN ART FORM
REG NO: RA1811003010227 NAME: Rashi Gambhir

NANDALAL BOSE, UNTITLED (PREPARATORY SKETCH OF CHARLES


FREER ANDREWS) . ESTIMATE $3,000–5,000 IN SOTHEBY'S MODERN
CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIAN ART SALE (18 MARCH, NEW YORK).
SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
18LEM110L – INDIAN ART FORM
REG NO: RA1811003010227 NAME: Rashi Gambhir
4. Bengal School Artist Nandalal Bose shared a special relationship with Gandhi.
Nandalal Bose, pupil of the Bengal School’s leader Abanindranath Tagore, became one
of the movement’s major artists. Exasperated by the British treatment of Indian
painting traditions, history, and artists, Bose turned to swadeshi notions of developing a
distinctively Indian modern art. He turned to the murals of Ajanta, and produced scenes
from Indian mythology and contemporary daily village life. In the 1920s and 30s, he
developed a friendship and professional relationship with Gandhi, who often invited
him to produce works for political pavilions. Bose commemorated Gandhi’s 1930
twenty-six day Dandi March with a series of sketches presenting him as a humble but
strong hero using expressive line work. These images of Gandhi contributed to the
development of twentieth century Indian modernism, identity, and nationalism.
SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
18LEM110L – INDIAN ART FORM
REG NO: RA1811003010227 NAME: Rashi Gambhir
5. Asit Kumar Haldar was a major artist of the Bengal Renaissance.
Asit Kumar Haldar was the nephew of Abanindranath Tagore, major Bengal poet,
musician, and artist. He studied painting under Jadu Pal and Bakkeswar Pal, two leading
Bengal artists, and joined Nandalal Bose to document the Ajanta cave paintings and
frescoes from 1909 to 1911. Haldar’s works synthesize Buddhist art with Indian history
through a sense of idealism. He was the first Indian artist to be appointed as the principal
of a Government Art School, and was the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts, London, in 1934. In addition to his artistic production and poetry, Haldar,
like his fellow artists of the Bengal Art School, committed his life to social reforms and
educational programs that would build a sense of Indian nationalism for contemporary
and future generations.

Bengal continues to produce some of the best artists of modern India. There is a
department in the Government College Of Art & Craft that has been training students the
traditional style of tempera and wash painting for almost a century now. These students
are carrying the legacy of the Bengal School artists, who, initially, were a group of artists,
following Abanindranath's style and sharing his aesthetic vision. Among them,
Dhirendranath Brahma is the living legend of the Bengal School of Art. He is a master of
calligraphy and has innumerable students who are carrying on the tradition of Bengal
School of painting. Among the other renowned artists of this style of painting are Amit
Sarkar, Ajoy Ghosh, Sankarlal Aich, Amal Chaklader, Narendranath De Sarkar, Sukti
Subhra Pradhan and Ratan Acharya. Some of the best known artists of present-day
Bengal are Jogen Chowdhury, Mrinal Kanti Das, Gopal Sanyal, Ganesh Pyne, Manishi
Dey, Shanu Lahiri, Ganesh Haloi [7] Jahar Dasgupta, Samir Aich, Bikash Bhattacharjee,
Sudip Roy, Ramananda Bandopadhyay and Devajyoti Ray. Sanat Chatterjee is one of the
last living pioneers of Bengal School of art. He studied under Asit Kumar Haldar for
around fifteen years.

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