Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd

Description

School of Bengal, India, (c1900-1920s) - Portrait of a Pensive Young Woman Standing Beside the Branch of a Tree

A fine watercolour with touches of body-colour on thick wove paper. The sheet has been carefully folded, almost in half and is inscribed variously on the back in pencil. Although the sheet has been folded the colours are strong and consistent on both sides.

This painting will be sold as seen without a mount or frame. Care will be taken not to apply pressure on either side of the sheet and will be dispatched using a clear polyester sleeve.

The Bengal school arose as an avant garde and nationalist movement reacting against the academic art styles previously promoted in India, both by Indian artists such as Raja Ravi Varma and in British art schools. Following the influence of Indian spiritual ideas in the West, the British art teacher Ernest Binfield Havell attempted to reform the teaching methods at the Calcutta School of Art by encouraging students to imitate Mughal miniatures. This caused controversy, leading to a strike by students and complaints from the local press, including from nationalists who considered it to be a retrogressive move. Havell was supported by the artist Abanindranath Tagore, a nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore painted a number of works influenced by Mughal art, a style that he and Havell believed to be expressive of India's distinct spiritual qualities, as opposed to the materialism of the West. Tagore's best-known painting, Bharat Mata (Mother India), depicted a young woman, portrayed with four arms in the manner of Hindu deities, holding objects symbolic of India's national aspirations. Tagore later attempted to develop links with Japanese artists as part of an aspiration to construct a pan-Asianist model of art. Through the paintings of Bharat Mata, Abanindranath established the pattern of patriotism. Some of the notable painters and artists of Bengal school were Nandalal Bose, M.A.R Chughtai, Sunayani Devi (sister of Abanindranath Tagore), Manishi Dey, Mukul Dey, Kalipada Ghoshal, Asit Kumar Haldar, Sudhir Khastgir, Kshitindranath Majumdar, Sughra Rababi.

The Bengal school's influence in India declined with the spread of modernist ideas in the 1920s. As of 2012, there has been a surge in interest in the Bengal school of art among scholars and connoisseurs.

PAYMENT OPTIONS
Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay can be processed through Stripe on our company website. We also accept payment by cheque and bank transfer. We offer two methods of paying by instalments the first is with Stripe, 'Klarna' / Pay in 3 monthly interest free instalments. Deferred payments can also be accepted over an agreed period of time whilst paintings remain with us, this method is also interest free. With Stripe the item will be shipped after the first instalment has cleared.

CONDITION AND PRESENTATION
If a picture is shown to be framed, then the frame will be included with the sale of the picture. All the pictures we offer are available for purchase in the condition you see them advertised. More details including high resolution images can be sent for closer inspection. For added protection unframed and mounted pictures are wrapped in clear polyester film before shipping to the customer.