National Gallery of Modern Art-Parikraman

Nandalal Bose

A Sketch from Album No. 86 9215 Nandalal Bose Pen and ink on paper

Nandalal had a strong affinity for sketching; his subjects being from the surrounding environs, people in their everyday life or anything that he found fascinating. The artist has executed this sketch of a Baul singer who are wandering minstrels preaching spirituality and mysticism with folk songs. Here the Baul singer is depicted as seated underneath the tree, playing upon cymbals with Ektara (string instrument) lying close to him. Nandalal uses delicate lines to create the form of the Baul singer as he well understood their significance and experimented frequently in their execution from fine lines to being thick contouring lines, executed in a calligraphic fashion. The artist also developed his unique visual language of rendering tonal variations with simple strokes to bring about the corporeality of form and substance. The emphasis on the strong delineation of line was the influence of the Far Eastern art practices in the works of Nandalal.