Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern

Indian art Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including Indian painting, painting, sculpture in the Indian subcontinent, sculpture, Indian pottery, pottery, and textile arts such as Silk in the Indian subcontinent#Origin, woven silk. Geographica ...

and a key figure of

Contextual Modernism ''Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism'' was an exhibition curated by R. Siva Kumar at the National Gallery of Modern Art in 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India's Independence. The exhibition, through bringi ...

. A pupil of

Abanindranath Tagore Abanindranath Tagore ( Bengali: অবনীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 August 1871 – 5 December 1951) was the principal artist and creator of the "Indian Society of Oriental Art". He was also the first major exponent of Sw ...

, Bose was known for his "Indian style" of painting. He became the principal of

Kala Bhavan Kala Bhavana (Institute of Fine Arts) is the fine arts faculty of Visva-Bharati University, in Shantiniketan, India. It is an institution of education and research in visual arts, founded in 1919, it was established by Nobel laureate Rabindra ...

Santiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by hi ...

in 1921. He was influenced by the

Tagore family The Tagore family (also spelled as ''Thakur''), with over three hundred years of history,Deb, Chitra, pp 64–65. has been one of the leading families of Calcutta, India, and is regarded as one of the key influencers during the Bengali Renaissa ...

and the murals of Ajanta; his classic works include paintings of scenes from Indian mythologies, women, and village life. Today, many critics consider his paintings among India's most important modern paintings. In 1976, the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexand ...

, Department of Culture,

Govt. of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

declared his works among the "nine artists" whose work, "not being antiquities", were to be henceforth considered "to be art treasures, having regard to their artistic and aesthetic value". He was given the work of illustrating the constitution of India.

Early life

Nandalal Bose was born on 3 December 1882 in a middle-class Bengali family at

Haveli Kharagpur Haveli Kharagpur is a town and One of the three subdivision in Munger district in the indian state of Bihar. Historically it was the centre of the medieval Kharagpur Raj chieftaincy. Geography Haveli Kharagpur is located at . It has an average ...

, in Munger district of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

state. The family originally hailed from

Jejur Jejur is a gram panchayat under Haripal block in Chandannagar subdivision of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Jejur is located at . Jejur gram panchayat is composed of the following villages: Rajaballabhbati, M ...

Hooghly District Hooghly district () is one of the districts of the Indian state of West Bengal. It can alternatively be spelt ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli''. The district is named after the Hooghly River. The headquarters of the district are at Hooghly-Chinsura (''C ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

.Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan by Anjali Bose, 1976, p. 236 His father, Purna Chandra Bose, was at that time working in the Darbhanga Estate. His mother Khetramoni Devi was a housewife with a skill in improvising toys and dolls for young Nandalal. From his early days Nandalal began taking an interest in modelling images and later, decorating Puja pandals. In 1898, at the age of fifteen, Nandalal moved to Calcutta for his high school studies in the Central Collegiate School. After clearing his examinations in 1902, he continued his college studies at the same institution. In June 1903 he married Sudhiradevi, the daughter of a family friend. Nanadalal wanted to study art, but he was not given permission by his family. Unable to qualify for promotion in his classes, Nandalal moved to other colleges, joining the Presidency College in 1905 to study commerce. After repeated failures, he persuaded his family to let him study art at Calcutta's School of Art.

Career

Yama And Savitri, from a painting by Nandalal Bose

As a young artist, Nandalal Bose was deeply influenced by the

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

s of the

Ajanta Caves The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures de ...

. He had become part of an international circle of artists and writers seeking to revive classical Indian culture; a circle that already included

Okakura Kakuzō (also known as 岡倉天心 Okakura Tenshin) was a Japanese scholar and art critic who in the era of Meiji- Restoration reform defended traditional forms, customs and beliefs. Outside Japan, he is chiefly renowned for '' The Book of Tea: A Jap ...

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

, Yokoyama Taikan,

Christiana Herringham Christiana Jane Herringham, Lady Herringham (née Powell; 1852–1929) was a British artist, copyist, and art patron. She is noted for her part in establishing the National Art Collections Fund in 1903 to help preserve Britain's artistic heritag ...

Laurence Binyon Robert Laurence Binyon, CH (10 August 1869 – 10 March 1943) was an English poet, dramatist and art scholar. Born in Lancaster, England, his parents were Frederick Binyon, a clergyman, and Mary Dockray. He studied at St Paul's School, London ...

, and the seminal London Modernist sculptors

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the '' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cr ...

and

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produce ...

. To mark the 1930 occasion of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

's arrest for protesting the British tax on salt, Bose created a black on white linocut print of Gandhi walking with a staff. It became the iconic image for the non-violence movement. Untitled by Nandalal Bose

His genius and original style were recognised by famous artists and art critics like Gaganendranath Tagore,

Ananda Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...

and O. C. Ganguli. These lovers of art felt that objective criticism was necessary for the development of painting and founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art. He became principal of the Kala Bhavana (College of Arts) at Tagore's International University

in 1921. He was also famously asked by

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India du ...

to sketch the emblems for the Government of India's awards, including the

Bharat Ratna The Bharat Ratna (; ''Jewel of India'') is the highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest orde ...

and the

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

. Along with his disciple Rammanohar, Nandalal Bose took up the historic task of beautifying/decorating the original manuscript of the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ...

. He died on 16 April 1966 in Calcutta. Today, the

National Gallery of Modern Art National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

in Delhi holds 7000 of his works in its collection, including a 1930 black and white

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleu ...

of the Dandi March depicting Mahatma Gandhi, and a set of seven posters he later made at the request of Mahatma Gandhi for the 1938

Haripura Haripura is a village located near Kadod town in the Surat district of Gujarat, India. It is around 13 kilometres north east of Bardoli. During the Indian independence movement, it was the venue of annual session of the Indian National Congress ...

Session of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

His place in Indian Art

In his introduction for the

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

catalogue, R. Siva Kumar wrote-

Students

Some of his students were

Benode Behari Mukherjee Benode Behari Mukherjee (7 February 1904 – 11 November 1980) was an Indian artist from West Bengal state. Mukherjee was one of the pioneers of Indian modern art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. He was one of the earliest artists in mo ...

Ramkinkar Baij Ramkinkar Baij ( bn, রামকিঙ্কর বেইজ) (25 May 1906 – 2 August 1980) was an Indian sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. Early life and ...

Beohar Rammanohar Sinha Beohar Rammanohar Sinha (15 June 1929 – 25 October 2007) was an Indian artist who is very well known for his illustrations in the original final manuscript of Constitution of India, including the complete Preamble-page, which was brought to f ...

K. G. Subramanyan Kalpathi Ganpathi "K.G." Subramanyan (1924 29 June 2016) was an Indian artist. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2012. Life Subramanyan was born in Tamil Brahmin family on 1924 in Kuthuparamba in Kerala, India, and initially studied econ ...

A. Ramachandran Achutan Ramachandran Nair, popularly known as A. Ramachandran, is an Indian painter, born in 1935 in Attingal, Kerala. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi and in 2005, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highe ...

Henry Dharmasena Henry may refer to: People * Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portu ...

, L.T.P. Manjusri, Pratima Thakur, Ramananda Bandopadhyay, Sovon Som,

Jahar Dasgupta Jahar Dasgupta, (born 1942) is a contemporary painter from India.he was born on 31 may,1942 in Jamshedpur,India Early life and education Jahar Dasgupta's childhood spent in Jamshedpur where at the small age he used to draw elephants, dogs, tr ...

, Sabita Thakur, Malina Domeraloo, Shreya Gang Gang, Menaja Swagnesh, Yash Bombbut,

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of ...

Dinkar Kaushik Dinkar Kowshik (1918-2011) was an Indian painter. As principal of Kala Bhavana at Santiniketan, he reshaped it for contemporary art practices. Born in Dharawad, now in Karnataka, in 1918, he was involved in the Quit India Movement during his s ...

Amritlal Vegad Amritlal Vegad (3 October 1928 – 6 July 2018) was a noted Gujarati and Hindi language writer and painter living in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. Biography Amritlal was born to Govamal Jivan Vegad, who was a railway contractor hailing from ...

, Gauranga Charan and Kondapalli Seshagiri Rao. Also A.D.Jayathilake was one of his student from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and had the opportunity to study under Dr.Nandalal Bose in the final batch (1948–1952). Dr. Nandalal Bose's uniquely drawn two paintings; "Arjuna Tree" and "Mango trees" are currently with his Sri Lankan Student (A.D.Jaythilake).

Honours and awards

Nandalal Bose, who left a major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, founded in 1907. In 1954, he became the first artist to be elected Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi, India's National Academy of Art. In 1954, Nandalal Bose was awarded the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...

. In 1957, the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every yea ...

conferred honorary D.Litt. on him.

Vishvabharati University Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the ...

honoured him by conferring on him the title of 'Deshikottama'. The Academy of Fine Arts in Calcutta honoured Nandalal with the Silver Jubilee Medal. The Tagore Birth Centenary Medal was awarded to Nandalal Bose in 1965 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. ''Acharya Nandalal'', an Indian documentary film on the artist was made by

Harisadhan Dasgupta Harisadhan Dasgupta (1923–1996) was an Indian film director from Calcutta who was most prolific in the 1950s and 1960s. Dasgupta specialized in surveying subjects of fascination to the Bengali public. Dasgupta attended the University of So ...

in 1984.

Publications

* Drishti o srishti ision and the CreationBy Nandalal Bose, Published by Visva-Bharati Granthana Vibhaga ''Edition Language - Bengali'' * Shilpa Charcha শিল্প চর্চা by Nandalal Bose, Published April 1956 by Visva Bharati ''Edition Language - Bengali'' * Pictures from the life of buddha By Nandalal Bose * Rupavali by Nandalal Bose

References

External links

New York Times slideshow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bose, Nandalal Indian male painters Fellows of the Lalit Kala Akademi Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in arts People from Howrah district 1880s births 1966 deaths Government College of Art & Craft alumni University of Calcutta alumni Visva-Bharati University faculty Bengali Hindus Bengali male artists 20th-century Bengalis Indian art educators Indian arts administrators People from Munger district 20th-century Indian painters 20th-century Indian educators Educators from West Bengal People from Birbhum district People from Kolkata Artists from Kolkata Painters from West Bengal