Pratima Devi writes about Nandalal Bose and the artistic activities of Bichitra Studio, in this commemorative essay from the archives.

Translator’s Introduction

In “A Tribute of Respect Paid to the Memory of Master Mahashay” [“Shraddheyo Master Mahashay er Smarane”], Pratima Devi commemorates her art teacher Nandalal Bose, one of the most distinguished painters of India, renowned for reigniting an indigenous painting style and popularising twentieth-century Pan-Asian art. She sheds light on Nandalal Bose’s educational methods and covers an analysis of his work while recounting her experience learning under his tutelage at Bichitra Studio, which was established through the combined efforts of Rabindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, and Abanindranath Tagore. Here, she also provides a brief account of the history of the studio. While summarising the artistic activities of Bichitra Studio, she recollects how eagerly people looked forward to visiting and attending cultural events at the art gallery of the Oriental Art Society. In an attempt to implicitly express her own excitement and enthusiasm towards these, she narrates several such incidents, enlightening readers about her artistic self. Nandalal Bose acknowledges that Pratima Devi was the first among her Bengal School contemporaries to have learnt the technique of fresco painting in France.¹ Her expertise in choreography led to the development of the Santiniketan School of Dance. Furthermore, Devi drew female nudes, despite belonging to the Bengal School, where nude study was hardly practised. Pratima Devi and the two other artists profiled here are emblematic of this gaping absence of women from the period’s mainstream contemporary art scene, and were precursors to an upcoming generation of women artists by being artists in their own rights.

Though apparently a commemorative essay, the current text could be read in more than one way. There were hardly any academic and cultural platforms in twentieth-century Bengal where women artists could air their views on art, discuss their own artistic practices, and make critical commentary and analyses on art and artists. In the male-dominated art world, the literary expressiveness of the women artists of Bengal, much like their artistic creations, remained confined and without a discourse of their own. To them, the very premise of paying tribute to one’s own master was like unlocking a gate of self-expression and throwing it wide open to render their repressed and silenced voices audible in the public domain. The current essay by Pratima Devi, written in Bengali is one such exemplary instance of a truly critical reading.

A Tribute of Respect Paid to the Memory of Master Mahashay (1966)

I was barely ten or eleven years old at the time. Back when he was a student, I had come across Nandalal Babu² for the first time at Jorasanko, accompanied by Chhotomama³ Abanindranath.

It was when Chhotomama had very recently become the Principal⁴ of the Government Art School⁵ that, one day, he called forth all the young children of the household: “Since all of you paint, let me take you all to Maa (Saudamini Devi), I shall show you a painting worthy of being painted.” Alokendra, Nabendra, Bratindra, and we the girls flocked together, and stood before our grandmother. Chhotomama then brought out two paintings before her, and rhapsodised, “Maa, this time I have discovered a student who follows my spirit—I do look forward to his becoming a great artist.” Our grandmother was overly enthusiastic about this particular field, and her visual insight was keen. She beheld those two paintings for quite a long time, and thereafter remarked, “How exquisitely your student has painted, Aban! Ask him to come over, and get him introduced to me—I am too eager to let him know about how delighted I feel to have viewed his painting.” As far as I can recall, those two paintings were Nandalal Babu’s Sitar Agnipariksha and Satir Dehatyag. That was when I was a mere little child.

During that period, the respected Nandalal Babu was being tutored in art by Abanindranath at the Art School. Later, when Chhotomama severed his relationship with the school, Nandalal Babu came regularly to take morning art lessons from Abanindranath. They talked about diverse subjects during these hours.

Bichitra came into existence at the end of the First World War, and this organisation had attained tremendous eminence in those times. Collectively with my maternal uncles, Gaganendranath and Abanindranath, Gurudev established this organisation. My husband was the Chief Secretary of Bichitra; he took care of all kinds of organisational arrangements.

There were materials for literary cultivation, art education, and variegated discussions at Bichitra. There were also various other undertakings, such as needlework, brass work, and an arrangement of different types of craft education. The sons and daughters of friends and acquaintances joined us, too. During this time, Abanindranath appointed his student, Nandalal Babu, as the art teacher. Here, Gurudev also assigned a position to his beloved pupil, Ajit Chakraborty. Gurudev had hoped to experiment with his self-created teaching methods and strategies here. Upon Gurudev’s insistence, Ena Devi and I joined those classes. The artist boys of my maternal household, too, enrolled themselves, amongst whom were Nabendra and Bratindra as well. From our friends and acquaintances of Calcutta, Dr Nilratan Sarkar Mahasay’s daughters, Dr Prankrishna Acharya Mahasay’s daughter, and our other litterateur friends’ daughters, too, joined this educational club, especially Nandalal Babu’s class. Furthermore, several other non-local art students attended. In this way, a new horizon unfolded at the learning centre of Bichitra through Acharya Nandalal Bose’s pedagogical guidance. Ajit Chakraborty has made an indelible contribution in the field of literature. All of us—Ena, Parul Devi, and I—took immense pleasure in studying literary lessons under him. His way of studying befitted Gurudev’s literary essence. Gurudev himself acknowledged, “Ajit is proficient in appreciating the essence of poetry in the very manner I do it myself.” The camaraderie of Gurudev, Gaganendranath, and Abanindranath facilitated growth and eminence of this learning centre, and Nandalal Bose set about to reveal the myriad aspects of his paintings.

We plunged into learning to our hearts’ content; this space did not ever appear to us to be a school classroom. Nandalal Babu’s art gallery was our abode of joy. He showed us countless diversified paintings upon our visiting his art gallery—and lucidly explained the subject matter to us; it was through beholding these that we preserved food for our thoughts. He elucidated the lines in every single painting. His pedagogical method was astounding and the strokes of his lines were brilliant. With a single line, he could articulate form and gesture. Perceiving his skill of stroking lines, my Mama used to feel extremely elated. Nandalal Babu’s stroke of lines is well-exemplified in his paintings, such as Sujata, Rahul, etc., no colours were used here—his very stroke of lines had been too efficient, invalidating the necessity of colours. He nevertheless had seldom applied touch of colours along with the line strokes, the only purpose being stimulation of emotions in human minds. My maternal uncles used to meet in this art gallery, and took pleasure in it. That being their abode of worship, their discussions and deliberations centred on art, and they remained enthralled in these discussions.

During this time, Gurudev visited Japan. He had brought along an artist with him while returning therefrom. Arai San⁶ was his name; he had then attained immense fame there. Having come here, he, too, took classes at Bichitra; Nandalal Babu was an appreciator of his art, and his friend.

Esteemed intellectuals and dignified persons frequented the Bichitra Hall in the evening; Gurudev, sitting amidst them, discussed literature, art, and science. That was the time when Bichitra had been an ideal assembly point of Calcutta for the surrounding population. For several accomplished and scholarly people, it had then emerged as a forum for discussions and exchange of ideas. As far as I can remember, my maternal uncles’ the Oriental Art Society⁷ started during this time. Common people enthusiastically awaited to see the art gallery of the art society, and attend various programmes of Bichitra. Simultaneously theatrical performances of Jorasanko continued to be staged. During this period, Dakghar, Phalguni, and Bisarjan, etc., were performed at the courtyard of Jorasanko household.

Materialisation of theatrical set design rested mostly on Nandalal Babu; conversely, Nandalal Babu, too, relied largely on Gaganendranath and Abanindranath. For instance, the setting for Dakghar was designed by Nandalal Babu and Gaganendranath. Plans for stage design coalesced with the theme of the play. A pata was carefully designed in accordance with the theme of the play Phalguni. I remember there was one single-leafed branch in the pata, and beneath it, a beam of crescent moonlight could be seen glowing. Upon this very stage, the wayfarers were chorusing the song Choli go choli. I still recall that Nandalal Babu and Abanindranath had painted the picture of balaka⁸ and it was mounted upon the stage of Phalguni.

During this time, my maternal uncles received funding from the government for operating an art society. In this connection, Gaganendranath and Abanindranath focused their attention on laying the foundation of an art society. Now they formed this art school slightly resembling the Bichitra. Here, every year thereafter, exhibitions of large-sized paintings started occurring. In these exhibitions, paintings of Abanindranath and Nandalal were put on display. This facilitated the blossoming of a unique perspective of art before the common public. People began to perceive the attributes of art. The educated class of Calcutta grew inquisitive about visiting this exhibition. Art enthusiasts around the country and the world visited and purchased the top-notch paintings of Gaganendranath, Abanindranath, and Nandalal Babu. Eventually paintings of Suren Kar, Asit Haldar, and several others began to be put up in this exhibition. In this manner, the noteworthiness of this exhibition spread. Here, an art-centric magazine titled Rupam used to be published, which, too, gained prominence among the then educated circle. For the first time ever, a magazine of such distinction was published in our country. Mr Ardhendra Ganguly was its editor. Anyway, with the establishment of this society of Calcutta a new era commenced. Although Abanindranath had begun writing essays for Prabasi prior to this, art could not gain popularity on such a scale. The Bengal educated class began understanding the art of painting more thoroughly through the annual exhibition of this art society.

The Society founded by my maternal uncles started functioning after receiving financial support from Carmichael,⁹ the then-Governor. Taking Nandalal Babu along with them, Gaganendranath and Abanindranath embarked upon their tasks with full vigour. This is how the ambit of art continued to expand. Needless to say, they did bear in mind the activities of the very homey assemblage of Bichitra—those ideals and methodologies were integrated within the Society’s modus operandi, and its motivating force had been of special help to them.

When, after these occurrences, departing the Bichitra Bari of Jorasanko we returned to Santiniketan, Gurudev strived to metamorphose Santiniketan into an ashram through multidisciplinary dimensions, and endeavoured towards its diffusion. Taking along Asit Haldar, Debal Babu, and Suren Kar, an institute for art education was started. This eventually resulted in a slight expansion of the Santiniketan School. On an earlier occasion, Gurudev had also made arrangements for art education; Abanindranath had then sent a young artist named Santosh Mitra to work. During that time, it was he who had taught art at the children’s section. Gradually over time, the school flourished quite a bit after Suren Kar and Asit Haldar had joined. Shortly after this, Gurudev invited Nandalal Babu to join in the task of imparting art education. He had initially vacillated, however, having been formerly acquainted with Gurudev at the Bichitra Club, and, being emboldened by the latter, became distinctly interested in the undertakings of the Ashram.

On his seeking permission from Mama to resign from the Art School and switch to Santiniketan, Abanindranath could not initially consent; later, upon Gurudev’s request, he complied. That was when Nandalal Babu was enthused by Gandhiji’s vision of Swadeshi, hence, he could not take delight in the undertakings of the Art School, and aspired to practise art individually under the influence of Gurudev with renewed ideals. Perhaps this is the reason why he chose to retreat to the peaceful haven of Santiniketan. His spouse, Sudhira Bose, was enraptured by the ashram lifestyle here, and was quite eager to come over. Thereupon, one day bringing his entire family, he built his nest at the ashram.

Once a Persian boy had built a house out of straw at the ashram, where the Gurupally¹⁰ is currently located—this house was large in comparison with that of other houses. After getting that house repaired, it was designated as Nandalal Babu’s residence. Encompassing his family, and centred on this house, Nandalal Babu’s artistic creativity began to emanate. At that time, he had two sons, two daughters, and his spouse had been an excellent homemaker. She kept the house daintily and tidily embellished with the sheer greatness of her hands. Although they were staying at a mud house, on viewing it, it appeared to be a genuine artist’s abode. His spouse’s handiwork was exquisitely beautiful, and she could make variegated floral decorative ornaments. Undoubtedly, she, too, was an artist.

Gurudev was intensely satisfied to have Nandalal Babu, and for the sake of endowing him with an extensive scope of work, a new art school was set up. Having had the house built, Pearson Sahib, upon learning that Nandalal Babu would start an art school there, evacuated the house. Taking along a few students, both male and female, Nandalal Babu commenced his endeavour to impart art education in the first­-floor room. Dinu¹¹ Babu set up an institute of music training on the ground floor of the house. All were enraptured by the sheer melody of his voice; they felt energised in their work—the artists in particular derived inspiration. Against this background, music and art commenced their synchronous journey.

When we went to Nandalal Babu for taking lessons in art, he used to tell us, “You must make sure to imbibe the art of painting into the inner core of your heart, and then disperse it from end-to-end across the households. Let the stream of elegant taste and pulchritude percolate throughout the human society of India in time to come. The entire Japanese populace, for instance, are worshippers of beauty; likewise, in our country, too, the imaginative faculty of people across all communities shall bathe in the radiance of fine arts.” This had been one great objective of his life.

Having initiated the new-fangled art form based largely on Puranic art,¹² he aspired to bring forth newness in the art style. There is a necessity to curate a noteworthy exhibition featuring the few artworks he painted at Santiniketan during the end of his life.

He had painted numerous frescoes and paintings at various times, and in too many places. They are lying scattered across many different places. Upon gathering them together, an art gallery, named after him, must be set up. At Gwalior Palace, for instance, there is a fresco painted by him. There is a painting at Mr Prasanta Mahalanobish’s residence, based on the impressions of which Gurudev had composed a poem. That is indeed a masterpiece painting.

Originally published in 1966 as “Shraddheyo Master Mahashay er Smarane,” in Nandalal Bose Sankhya, Visva Bharati Patrika, 9–12.

Translated from the original Bengali by Shilpi Das.

Pratima Devi—whom we have been drilled to introduce as Rabindranath Tagore’s daughter-in-law or the niece of Abanindranath Tagore and Gaganendranath Tagore—was a pioneering artist. She was born to Binayani Devi and Seshendrabhushan Chattopadhyay in Calcutta, on 5 November 5 1893. After her marriage, she received training in painting from the Italian artist Olinto Ghihardi, who had also been Abanindranath’s first art teacher. Her formal training in art began in 1916, with the establishment of the Bichitra Studio under the tutelage of Nandalal Bose and Asitkumar Haldar. She was one of the first few women students to receive training in art at both the Bichitra Studio and the Kala Bhavan. At Santiniketan, Pratima Devi had an art studio of her own named as “Chitrabhanu.” She was one of the collaborators of the craft workshop initiated by Andrée Karpèles. A distinct department for handicraft training named “Bichitra” was initiated through their synergetic effort (~1921-22). She completed her training in fresco painting in Paris under the tutelage of Robert La Montagne Saint-Hubert, an eminent Franco-American artist, and was the first among her Bengal School contemporaries to learn fresco painting technique in France. She contributed significantly to the history of Santiniketan and Bengal, as well as to the larger context of global art by positioning herself as well as other women as active participants within the art-historical development of early twentieth-century India.

Dr Shilpi Das received her PhD in English from Kazi Nazrul University, India, in 2023. Her thesis focused on the life writings and artworks of the women artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Bengal, who were treated with apathy and indifference and have barely been explored in Indian history. Das’s article, “The Bengal School’s Unsung Women Artists,” was republished in the Readings on Modernism: From 75 Years of Marg. Her translations of Chitranibha Chowdhury’s essay on Nandalal Bose, Pratima Devi’s essay on Abanindranath Tagore, and Nandalal Bose’s essay on Patrick Geddes have been published in Art in Translation, Sahitya Akademi and Summerhill: IIAS Review, sequentially. She has presented her research papers centring Bengali women artists in several prestigious institutes like IIAS (Shimla), IGNCA (Delhi), CWDS (Delhi), University of Dhaka, Ireland India Institute, Edinburgh College of Art, and CAA (USA).

Notes

^{1. Nandalal Bose, “Fresco,” Drishti O Shristi. Kolkata: Visva Bharati, 92.}

^{2. In Bengali culture, Babu is a formal and polite way of addressing a middle-aged or elderly man.}

^{3. In Bengali language, Chhoto means small or young and Mama is the word Bengalis use to address their maternal uncle. Hence, the youngest maternal uncle of the family is addressed as Chhotomama. Here, Pratima Devi is addresing Abanindranath as Chhotomama.}

^{4. Abanindranth Tagore was the Vice Principal of the Government School of Arts, Calcutta from 1905–15, and Ernest Binfield Havell was the Principal from 1896–1905.}

^{5. Here, the Government School of Art (later renamed as the Government College of Art and Craft) in Calcutta, is referred to as Art School by the author.}

^{6. Arai Kampo (1878–1945) was an accomplished painter and calligrapher from Japan who came to live and work in India between 1907 and 1915 by invitation of Rabindranath. His arrival triggered a fruitful collaboration with Nandalal Bose. In the Bichitra Studio, he taught Nandalal Japanese brush techniques which resulted in a cultural exchange with Indian painting and Japanese ink painting technique.} 

^{7. Oriental Art Society or the Indian Society of Oriental Art was an art society founded in Calcutta by Pratima Devi’s maternal uncles: Abanindranth Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, and Samarendranath Tagore in 1907 under the guidance of E. B. Havell with the aim to promote and support the burgeoning nationalist Bengal school of art.}

^{8. Balaka refers to a small, white-coloured heron. This bird has been a part of ancient Indian culture and poetry.}

^{9. Lord Carmichael came to live in Calcutta as the Governor of Bengal (1912–17). He was an art enthusiast and a close associate of Gaganendranath Tagore. He was one of the keen patrons of Indian Society of Oriental Art.}

^{10. Gurupally is a residential area in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.}

^{11. Dinendranath Tagore (1882–1935), also known as Dinu Thakur, was the grandson of the eldest brother of Rabindranath Tagore. He was a noted musician, singer, and poet.}

^{12. Anything pertaining to Purana are termed as Puranic. Purana refers to any of a class of Sanskrit writings not included in the Vedas.}