National Gallery of Modern Art-Parikraman

Nandalal Bose

A Sketch from Album No. 89 9275 Nandalal Bose Pen & Ink on postcard

Nandalal's exploration of the different ways of delineating a line allowed him to experiment in representation of lines in its varying forms adding rhythm, vigour and life to the form and elements of nature. Dinkar Kowshik in his article, 'Drawings and Sketches of Nandalal Bose', writes- "His drawings often on card size format turned into independent works of art; they were fresh and vivid because of their immediacy and rapport with felt reality. They were not preliminary sketches to be developed later into paintings. In fact most of these drawings and sketches were an end in themselves. Their compositional relation to the blank space, their shrewd sense of observation, and their living organic quality make his sketches far more absorbing aesthetically than many of his finished paintings." The above postcard illustrates a flock of birds sitting atop a branch of a tree. With the use of strong and rhythmic lines, Nandalal adds grace and spirit to the intricate mesh of branches covering the entire pictorial space, with the use of a series of effortless strokes.