National Gallery of Modern Art-Parikraman

Nandalal Bose

A Sketch from Album No. 87 9217 Nandalal Bose Watercolour 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. His firm belief that for the creation of art an intimate understanding of the nature and its ways is imperative. The range of Nandalal's artistic expression can be seen in the changing Indian landscapes, his varied images of nature and the portrayal of people and places. Dinkar Kowshik in his article 'Drawings and Sketches of Nandalal in the book, 'Nandalal Bose - A collection of Essays has written of Nandalal's sketches and drawings -" Nandalal's drawings are vast in number and varied in technical interest. He was indefatigable in his search for form and to the end of his life he remained a student. Whatever he saw, and wherever he went he recorded the flora and fauna, the people of the place, their dress, their carriages, the head-dresses, the landscape, the festivals, the architecture, and while doing that he went on attaining a felicity of expression." Nandalal adept in the Chinese and Japanese brush techniques has in this monochromatic painting emphasised on the tonal variations of the colour for precise and recognisable renderation of a village person. The artist with the fluid handling of the line in the far Eastern calligraphic style artist has evoked the lively sense of humour arising from the humble recordings of the everyday chores of common folks. His smaller sketches are testimony of Nandalal's keen sense of observation and his empathy for the environment in which he lived.