Jamini Roy was one of the earliest and most significant modernists of twentieth century Indian art. From 1920 onwards his search for the essence of form led him to experiment with dramatically different visual style. His career spanning over nearly six decades had many significant turning points and his works collectively speak of the nature of his modernism and the prominent role he played in breaking away from the art practices of his time. Trained in the British academic style of painting in the early decades of the twentieth century, Jamini Roy became well-known as a skilful portraitist. He received regular commissions after he graduated from the Government Art School in what is now Kolkata, in 1916. The first three decades of the twentieth century saw a sea-change in cultural expressions in Bengal. The growing surge of the nationalist movement was prompting all kinds of experiments in literature and the visual arts. The Bengal School, founded by Abanindranath Tagore and Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan under Nandalal Bose rejected European naturalism and the use of oil as a medium and were exploring new ways of representation. Jamini Roy, too, consciously rejected the style he had mastered during his academic training and from the early 1920s searched for forms that stirred the innermost recesses of his being. He sought inspiration from sources as diverse as East Asian calligraphy, terracotta temple friezes, objects from folk arts and crafts traditions and the like. What was increasingly apparent from 1920 onwards was that Roy brought a joy and
Country
India
Inscription
Signed 'Jamini Roy' in Bengali at the bottom right corner of the
painting with brush in red colour.
Dimensions
68 X 51.2 cms
Brief Description
This painting is an evocative image of a rural community. Jamini Roy
has beautifully represented in many of his paintings the sect of the
Vaishnavas, the followers of Krishna as either making offerings to
the lord or on the way to a temple in a procession or going around
villages singing kirtans (devotional songs) on the life of Krishna,
and seeking alms. It is interesting to see how Roy broke down the
figure to the essential form that goes into its making and then
synthesised it to suggest a structure. Jamini Roy drew imagery that
was authentic using simplification of form inspired by the folk arts
of the region that had evolved over the centuries. In this painting
the artist has adopted the tribhanga or the bent axis from the
traditional iconography in the representation of the figure of
Gopini or herd woman or milkmaid. The artist has adhered to the
notions of ideal feminine beauty with the depiction of the doe eyes,
demure stances and the voluptuous figure of the Gopini with a
heightened pliancy in her figuration. There is a strong element of
fantasy in the richly saturated palette that Roy has used
particularly for the Krishna-Leela series of works. The artist
conveys a sense of an idyll where faith, religion and spirituality
create an organic wholeness in life.
Detailed Description
This painting is an evocative image of a rural community. Jamini Roy
has beautifully represented in many of his paintings the sect of the
Vaishnavas, the followers of Krishna as either making offerings to
the lord or on the way to a temple in a procession or going around
villages singing kirtans (devotional songs) on the life of Krishna,
and seeking alms. It is interesting to see how Roy broke down the
figure to the essential form that goes into its making and then
synthesised it to suggest a structure. Jamini Roy drew imagery that
was authentic using simplification of form inspired by the folk arts
of the region that had evolved over the centuries. In this painting
the artist has adopted the tribhanga or the bent axis from the
traditional iconography in the representation of the figure of
Gopini or herd woman or milkmaid. The artist has adhered to the
notions of ideal feminine beauty with the depiction of the doe eyes,
demure stances and the voluptuous figure of the Gopini with a
heightened pliancy in her figuration. There is a strong element of
fantasy in the richly saturated palette that Roy has used
particularly for the Krishna-Leela series of works. The artist
conveys a sense of an idyll where faith, religion and spirituality
create an organic wholeness in life.
