National Gallery of Modern Art-Parikraman

Nandalal Bose

Wild Animals- IV 6938 Nandalal Bose Black & white watercolour on paper

This painting belongs to a series of monochromatic ink and watercolour paintings inspired by the Sumi-e Japanese technique the artist employed in the last phase of his life. The subject here being 'Wild Animals' executed from his memory and experiences. A. Ramachandran in the book, 'Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose' writes, "After retirement from a long service of teaching (and even though his mobility was restricted due to less than robust health), Nandalal settled down in his home studio for a retrospective examination of the images he had stored in his mind over long years. As if he were in fact writing his autobiography, Nandalal returned to the early years of his life to take stock of the scenes and images that he had collected, and he continued to spontaneously record human figures, animals, mountain ranges, hills, rivers, waterfalls, landscapes, flights of birds, trees, plants, insects, etc, on mounted handmade papers using only ink and brush."