National Gallery of Modern Art-Parikraman

Nandalal Bose

A Sketch from Album No. 85 9175 Nandalal Bose Pen and ink on paper

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 process enabled him to experiment with newer techniques, explore new mediums and evolve new art practices without being conformed to a particular style. The above sketch shows two human figures, one in profile and the other facing his back to the viewer, both deeply engrossed in the act of painting. Dinkar Kowshik in his article, 'Drawings and Sketches of Nandalal Bose', 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......Their spacing, their distribution of black and white, their linear or tonal accents and the signature all form a part of a single unit."