National Gallery of Modern Art-Parikraman

Nandalal Bose

A Sketch from Album No. 88 9241 Nandalal Bose Pen & Ink on postcard

The fluid handling of the line and their strong delineation in the calligraphic style adds grace and spirit to the subjects narrated in the drawings and sketches of Nandalal Bose. The folds of the drapes, their coiffures, ornaments and their implements are keenly observed by the artist. In this delightful pen and ink drawing, Nandalal has portrayed fruit gatherers picking fruits from a tree in their baskets.The perceptible representation of both the tree and the fruit gatherers is executed in a range of linear styles with pen and ink that not only lends tonal variations but brings out their true form as well. The artist has astutely juxtaposed the two men against the backdrop of tree in terms of spatial treatment and employed the use of linear patterns to represent the characteristics of the tree and the fruit gatherers. Dinkar Kowshik in his article 'Drawings and Sketches of Nandalal in the book titled "Nandalal Bose - A collection of Essays" has elucidated about the sketches of Nandalal in the words, "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."