National Gallery of Modern Art-Parikraman

Nandalal Bose

A Sketch from Album No. 73 8890 Nandalal Bose Pen & Ink on postcard

Nandalal had a strong affinity for sketching, his subjects being the surrounding environs, people in their everyday life or anything that he found fascinating. The above drawing shows a figure of a man, barefooted, walking with his belongings in both hands. The fluid handling of the lines and their strong delineation in the calligraphic style gives a textured rendition to the body of the local carrying his belongings across his shoulders and also accentuates his vigour and strength. Dinkar Kowshik in his article 'Drawings and Sketches of Nandalal' in the book, "Nandalal Bose - A collection of Essays" writes, "Nandalal's sketches in fact provide a moving record of a humble life and natural environment in which he lived. These are not in any way preliminary studies for his larger finished compositions in black and white or in colour. They are finished and self-contained in themselves like a Japanese 'Haiku'. Their spacing, their distribution of black and white, their linear or tonal accents and the signature all form a part of a single unit."