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 canvases. 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.

In the above painting, 'On a Pass', Bireswar Sen illustrates a scene where a family of a man, woman and a child are asking for the blessings of a saint. The figures are seen in animated gestures against the backdrop of a prismatic sky.

M. S. Randhawa, in the book- 'The Himalayas' writes, "In these miniatures, he (Bireswar Sen) has successfully caught the evanescent moods of nature- passing showers, sunset gleams, which appear for a moment to vanish forever, shimmering sunlight on rusting foliage, clouds that form and reform in all sorts of fantastic shapes, and the approach of heavy rain clouds of the Indian monsoon."

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 natural surroundings the focal point of the composition.