Bireswar Sen, born in 1897 in Calcutta, West Bengal, is one of the most prominent landscape artists of modern India. He trained under the tutelage of Abanindranath Tagore at the Indian Society of Oriental Art and was greatly influenced by the techniques of Japanese art introduced by artists such as Arai Kampo and Taikan. Having graduated in English Literature, he taught the subject at a college in Patna, Bihar for a few years before taking up art teaching full-time at the School of Arts and Crafts, Lucknow in 1929.

Bireswar Sen is eminently known for his miniature sized natural landscapes imbued with the tenets of his Bengal School training in thought and application. His love for nature dominated his paintings and was further heightened upon his meeting with the legendary artist Nicholas Roerich who had epitomised the beauty of the Himalayas in his canvasses. Bireswar Sen also took to portraying the incomparable splendour and beauty of the changing terrains and environs of the Mighty Himalayas, but on a small scale. His works were executed mostly on paper and were the size of a small card yet never appearing cluttered.

They rather echoed similar sentiments and details as encapsulated by larger canvases. His learning and deep interest in literature added lyricism and poetry in his landscapes. The colour schematisation contributes as the key component in harmoniously suffusing the monumental scale of the Himalayas in such compact space. The effortless application of colour and sweeping brush work adds to the glory and magnificence of nature. Sen's paintings arouse a sense of wonder: the 'adbhuta rasa' and leaves the viewer to marvel at nature's creation.

'The Monastery' depicts a monastery building in a majestic landscape, surrounded by snow-clad mountains over a glimmering sky. A figure of a monk in Lilliputian size, against the wooden edifice, adds to the nobility of the mountains.

M. S. Randhawa, in the book- 'The Himalayas' writes, "His microscopic shepherds, horsemen, village women, cattle, goats, and horses, painted against the background of grand and awe inspiring rocks and mountains, impress upon us the comparative insignificance of man against the wild forces of nature."

Bireswar Sen's paintings are spiritual offerings to the grandeur of almighty nature. The collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi has a number of miniature landscapes by Bireswar Sen, mostly executed in watercolour and tempera on a card size paper not exceeding two and a half by three and a half inches. Bireswar Sen started his artistic career as a figure painter, following the beliefs of the Bengal school. Soon abandoning religious and mythological subjects, he indulged in seeking harmony in the natural forces.

As a result, the figures in his compositions also became smaller, making the natural surroundings the focal point of the composition.