Nandalal Bose, popularly known as the Master Moshai, was born on December 3rd, 1882 in Kharagpur, Monghyr District, Bihar. A disciple of Abanindranath Tagore, he graduated from Government School of Art, Calcutta in 1910. Nandalal was fascinated by the potential of folk art and indigenous modes of expression and inculcated them in his works although stylising them in a unique representation for depiction and narration of local life. His explorative temperament with the artistic materials allowed him to create a vast body of work with printmaking techniques as lithography, linoleum prints and Sino- Japanese techniques while remaining faithful to his narrative subject: India's environment and its ethos. Nandalal Bose's art conjures newness unbound but still flushed with the memories of yesterday.

Inspired by Far Eastern sensibilities that celebrate the traditional, the genius of his art's lies in the interplay of sensual silhouettes and his powerful rendering of contemporary themes with the traditions, customs and sensibilities of Indian heritage. It is this intermingling that invigorates his works and captures the minds of his viewers. He began his artistic career in the fervour of Swadeshi movement, rejecting western colonial norms of art and taking inspirations from the ancient murals of Ajanta and Bagh caves as well as Mughal miniatures. In 1919, Nandalal Bose accepted Rabindranath Tagore's invitation to become the Principal of the newly established art school Kala Bhavan at Visvabharati University in Santiniketan.

He travelled in and out of India including places like Burma, China, Japan, Malaysia, Java and Sri Lanka seeking artistic stimulus from observing different cultural traditions. He also painted a series of posters for the Indian National Congress at Haripura in February 1938. The range of Nandalal's artistic expressions is seen in his various landscapes with human figures, his varied images of nature and the Santiniketan Murals. His works reflect the changing landscape, portraying people and places at a time when modern India's cultural development was at its threshold.

Nandalal Bose died on April 16th, 1966 in Santiniketan, West Bengal. He won several accolades including the Padma Vibhushan by the President of India in 1953. He was awarded with an honorary Doctorate in Letters (D. Litt.) from Banaras Hindu University in 1950 and Calcutta University in 1957. The NGMA has over 6800 of his works in his collection.

Nandalal had a strong affinity for sketching, his subjects being the surrounding environs, people in their everyday life or anything that he found fascinating. In the above postcard Nandalal illustrates a woman cutting paddy crops in the field.

Nandalal's exploration of the different ways of delineating a line allowed him to experiment in representation of lines in its varying forms adding rhythm, vigour and life to the form of the figures.

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi acquired the largest collection of 6744 artworks of Nandalal Bose from his family some of which were exhibited in the Centenary celebratory exhibition organised by the museum in the year 1983. A major portion of the museum's collection includes monochromatic pencil sketches, pen and ink drawings on postcard and paper, watercolour paintings and sketches apart from the more detailed and elaborate tempera and wash paintings, Haripura posters and prints from the artist's extensive oeuvre.

Nandalal preferred drawing from life, often sketching outdoors with the subject being life, nature studies, landscapes, figure drawings, animals. Often the sketches were small in scale although invigorating with the rich detailing of the artist's observations, experiences and sojourns to various places.