Rathindranath Maitra or Rathin Maitra in short (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: রথীন মৈত্র), also spelt as Rathin Moitra (10 July 1913 – 3 July 1997), was a prominent Bengali painter. He was one of the new generation of Indian modernist painters and co-founder of the

Calcutta Group The Calcutta Group was a group of modern artists in India, formed in 1943 in Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the ea ...

in 1943.অঞ্জলি বসু সম্পাদিত, ''সংসদ বাঙালি চরিতাভিধান'', দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড, সাহিত্য সংসদ, কলকাতা, জানুয়ারি ২০১৯ পৃষ্ঠা ৩৩৯ (in Bengali),

Birth and early life

Rathin Maitra was born on 10 July in the year 1913 in Shitalai House, in

Pabna Pabna () is a city of Pabna District, Bangladesh and the administrative capital of the eponymous Pabna District. It is on the north bank of the Padma River and has a population of about . Etymology * According to the historian Radharaman Saha ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

(present day

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

). His father, zamindar Jogendranath Maitra, was a leader of the national movement and used to have a great interest in

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the Indian classical music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' ...

. His mother was Sarala Devi, the daughter of Raja Kishorilal Goswami of

Serampore Serampore (also called Serampur, Srirampur, Srirampore, Shreerampur, Shreerampore, Shrirampur or Shrirampore) is a city in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Srirampore subdivision. It is a part ...

. Eminent orator and patriot Tulsi Charan Goswami was his maternal uncle, and poet and singer Jyotirindra Maitra was his elder brother. At the Bhawanipur Mitra Institution in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

, he was trained in

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...

by Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury. After completing his matriculation in 1931, he started his education at the then Government School of Fine Arts (present day

Government College of Art and Craft The Government College of Art & Craft (GCAC) in Kolkata is one of the oldest Art colleges in India. It was founded on August 16, 1854 at Garanhata, Chitpur, "with the purpose of establishing an institution for teaching the youth of all classe ...

) in

from where he passed the final examination with distinction in 1937. Later, he came in contact with

Nandalal Bose Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism, Contextual Modernism. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his ...

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 ...

and

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

at the

Kala Bhavana 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 Shantiniketan (IPA: Help:IPA/Bengali, �antiniketɔn 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 Devendra ...

Career

He then travelled around India in search of Indian heritage to get an opportunity to know the social customs, manners, arts of different regions of the country. Both the

Rajput painting Rajput painting, painting of the regional Hindu courts during the Mughal era, roughly from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century. Traditionally, Rajput painting is further divided into Rajasthan and Pahari painting whic ...

s and the

Pahari painting Pahari painting () is an umbrella term used for a form of Indian painting, done mostly in miniature forms, originating from the lower Himalayan hill kingdoms of North India, during the early 17th to mid 19th century, notably Basohli, Mankot, ...

s influenced him a lot. At that time in 1943, during the Second World War and the

Bengal famine of 1943 The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 800,000–3.8 million people died, in the Bengal region (present-day Ban ...

Subho Tagore Subho Tagore, full name Subhagendranath Tagore (Bengali: সুভো ঠাকুর) (January 3, 1912 – July 17, 1985), was the great-grandson of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore. He was a painter, poet, magazine editor and art collector.সু ...

Nirode Mazumdar Nirode Mazumdar (11 May 1916 – 26 September 1982) was an Indian painter from the first generation of modernists, and a key member of the Calcutta Group. Almost a forgotten figure today, he strode the art scenario from the 40's like a colossus. ...

, Pradosh Dasgupta,

Paritosh Sen Paritosh Sen () (26 September 1918 – 22 October 2008) was a leading Indian artist. He was born in Dhaka (then known as Dacca), the present-day capital of Bangladesh. He was a founder member of the Calcutta Group, an art movement established ...

Gopal Ghose Gopal Ghose (5 December 1913 – 30 July 1980) was an Indian painter from West Bengal. In 1943, he was one of the founders of the Calcutta Group, perhaps the first group of modernist painters in India. Life and career Ghose was born in Calcut ...

, Prankrishna Pal and he himself formed a fine art group called the

. During his career, he also taught at the

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

for several years and later became the Honorary Joint Secretary of the

Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata The Academy of Fine Arts, in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is one of the oldest fine arts societies in India. The galleries of the Academy provide a whopping 6,300 square feet of space and has an auditorium, a conference centre, and several import ...

. In 1953, he was responsible for directing the first exhibition of

Indian painting Indian painting has a very long tradition and history in Indian art.Blurton, 193 The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, such as the petroglyphs found in places like the Bhimbetka rock shelters. Some of the ...

s in the United States, a joint initiative of the then

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

and the

. He received the huge opportunity to visit art galleries in various

European countries The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of Europe, geographical or political. Fifty generally recognised sovereign states, Kosovo with limited, but substantial, international reco ...

while there and back. During the course of that time, for notable novelist and playwright

Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...

, and renowned Indian philosopher and monk of the

Ramakrishna order The Ramakrishna Order ( Bengali: রামকৃষ্ণ সংঘ) is the monastic lineage that was founded by Ramakrishna Paramhansa, when he gave the ochre cloth of renunciation to twelve of his close disciples, in January 1886 at the Cossip ...

Swami Prabhavananda Swami Prabhavananda (December 26, 1893 – July 4, 1976) was an Indian philosopher, monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and religious teacher. He moved to America in 1923 to take up the role of assistant minister in the San Francisco Vedanta Society. ...

's translated version of the ''

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...

'' into English titled ''

Bhagavad Gita - Song of God ''Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God'' is the title of the Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood's translation of the '' Bhagavad Gītā'' (Sanskrit: , "Song of God"), an important Hindu scripture. It was first published in 1944 with an In ...

'', he designed and painted the cover. Apart from oil and

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

, he also excelled in scale drawing. He had a reputation as an art teacher. His paintings are preserved in various art museums in India and in private collections of many individuals abroad. He was also invited by the Bombay Art Society to hold a solo show in September 1947.

Death

Maitra passed away on 3 July 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maitra, Rathin 1913 births 1997 deaths Artists from Kolkata