Benodebehari Mukherjee is one of the most seminal artists who successfully wore the garb of an artist, teacher, a muralist, a thinker, and a writer and one who has left behind a unique impression on Indian art. This was in spite of his having visual impairment from childhood which aggravated and resulted in total blindness at the prime age of his life.

His early training and exposure at Kala Bhavan, the newly formed art school in Santiniketan exposed his young mind to Rabindranath Tagore's vision of a progressive and modern academic structure where true indigenous visual culture imbibed the spirit of world art and revalidated it on modern lines. Trained under Nandalal Bose, Benodebehari Mukherjee departed from the Revivalist Bengal School that sought inspiration from the mythological tales, literary works, miniature paintings and other indigenous art practices. Benodebehari took a more modernist approach to painting exploring the possibilities that lay in colour, lines and forms. His moving away from the then predominant Bengal School in itself was a bold step and it carved a path for the future artists to explore myriad possibilities beyond the tenets of Bengal School.

Benodebehari travelled extensively to Nepal and the Himalayan regions and drew from his experiences and understanding of nature, the mountains, the hilly terrains, the vast expanses around Santiniketan the beautiful sunflowers, lilies, etc. The naturalistic scenes predominated as themes in his works though he has also made paintings, sketches and watercolour works of the people he met. His keen sense of observation of everyday reality charged with the inner vitality of matter became his innate strength. The artist has also made murals on the walls and ceilings on different buildings of Santiniketan epitomizing his love for the traditional practice of mural paintings which he so fervently studied.

With time, Mukherjee adopted different media to work on from sketches, calligraphy and watercolours at the start of his career to making large scale murals, oil paintings, tempera, crayons, collages and also experimented with printmaking techniques of woodcuts, block printing. The artist also worked as an educator in institutions in Mussoorie, Rajasthan and finally joined Santiniketan and was made the Principal of the institution. Through his long career the artist also served at the Museum in Nepal. With the loss of his eye sight the artist fervently took to writing on art and art education. Benodebehari is the recipient of several honours including Padma Vibhushan and an honorary Doctorial degree of Desikottama by Viswa Bharati.

Nature features predominantly in Benode Behari’s works of art. His water colours and sketches are replete with accurate and exquisite studies of plants and flowers. These are not necessarily pretty picture postcards. The artist in him is interested in what makes these objects truly beautiful and the rhythms and cycle of nature.He often painted flowers and gave them away as presents to his friends and students and to his wife every birthday.

Look at the painting of the sunflowers, a remarkable work of oil on cloth. It depicts a row of plants, standing, probably, in a sunflower field. Some of the flowers are in full bloom, some are buds yet to open while a couple have dried or bending over and falling to the ground. The leaves too can be seen, some green, some withered and brown. The painting has a matt finish, which he preferred to the natural gloss of the oil medium.