1861-1941

Human figures are depicted either as individuals with expressive gestures or in groups in theatrical settings. In portraits produced during the 1930s, he renders the human face in a way reminiscent of a mask or persona. Tagore himself seldom spoke about his paintings: 'People often ask me about the meaning of my pictures. I remain silent even as my pictures.'

Tagore is best known as a poet and in 1913 was the first non- European writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Tagore began painting relatively late in his career, when he was in his sixties. His painting style was very individual, characterized by simple bold forms and a rhythmic quality, that later served to inspire many modern Indian artists.

Rabindranath Tagore's artistic adventure began with doodles that turned crossed-out words and lines into images that assumed expressive and sometimes grotesque forms. Many of them represent animals, but they are seldom of the real ones we know; more often they represent what he has described as 'a probable animal that had unaccountably missed its chance of existence' or 'a bird that only can soar in our dreams'. While Rabindranath Tagore did not acquire technical skill before he began to paint, the resemblance to the state of mind of a child is far more obvious. If this comparison with the impulses of a child painter be significant, to any extent, the paintings of Rabindranath Tagore may be called a sophisticated child art, much more accurately than similar work of the many advanced artists, who have surrendered themselves to the methods of child art.