Abanindranath Tagore

AJIT KUMAR
180048

Who is Abanindranath Tagore?

Abanindranath Tagore was a prolific
painter and the founder of the Bengal School
of art. His family were Kolkata aristocrats
who greatly influenced and spearheaded art
and culture in the city. He was born in the
Tagore family bungalow in Jorasanko and
grew up to be a prolific painter and an
extremely influential revivalist of Indian art.

How did he become an artist?

A young Abanindranath studied his craft at the
Calcutta School of Art where he matured as a
painter under the influence of Italian art-teacher
Signor O. Gilhardi and British teacher Charles
Palmer, who helped him developed his technique
in painting. Later he would come in contact with
Japanese painter and art-critic Okakura,
Okakura taught him that the spirit of a culture is
represented in its art which guided him on the
path to revivalism. He also learnt from the
Japanese master painter that gesture and
movement of the hand while painting played an
important role in spirit of the painting itself.

Abanindranath Tagore believed in the
traditional Indian techniques of
painting. He rejected the materialistic
art of the West and emphasized on
returning to the Indian traditional art
forms. He believed that Indian art and
its art forms gave importance to
spirituality as opposed to the West
which stressed on materialism. He was
very much influenced by the Mughal
School of painting as well as Whistler's
Aestheticism. In his later works,
Abanindranath started integrating
Chinese and Japanese calligraphic
traditions into his style. The intention
behind this move was to construct an
amalgamation of the modern pan-
Asian artistic tradition and the
common elements of Eastern artistic
and spiritual culture. His works
reflected his ideologies and since they
were simple in nature, his paintings
were a hit among Indian art lovers.

Notable Paintings

Ganesh Janani

Painted in the year 1908, ‘Ganesh Janani’
depicts an image of Lord Ganesh in his child
form. The Lord is seen playing by hanging on
to a branch of a tree while his mother wears a

concerned look on her face.

Bharat Mata

This beautiful painting was completed in the year
1905. The painting depicts Bharat Mata (Mother

India). She is portrayed as having four hands,
carrying important elements in each of her hand. The
painting reflects Indian tradition, which features in

most of his works.

The Passing of
Shah Jahan

This is a scene straight out of Mughal Emperor
Shah Jahan’s final day. The picture depicts
Shah Jahan in his death bed, trying to get a
final view of Taj Mahal, which would be his
final resting place.

The Unfair Bequeath

Post his demise, his son Alokendranath
Tagore bequeathed almost all the paintings

of his father to the Rabindra Bharati
Society Trust. The trust made the famous
house of Abanindranath Tagore its own and
became the main repository of almost all
his works. Sadly, some of India’s treasures
have been locked away in places unknown,
and Alokendranath’s paintings too suffered

the same fate. The paintings are still
banished into some of the offices of the

trust with their condition unknown to
anyone. Some of the scholars of Bengal like
K. G. Subramanyan and R. Siva Kumar have

said that some of Abanindranath’s best
paintings haven’t been seen by the public

and argue that they will reveal his true
talent as a painter.

BIBOLOGRAPHY

https://theprint.in/features/abanindranath-tagore-harbinger-
of-bengals-renaissance-who-remained-swadeshi-by-
brush/158410/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanindranath_Tagore

https://totallyhistory.com/abanindranath-tagore/
https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-
culture/kolkata-victoria-memorial-hall-exhibition-bharat-

mata-the-nation-and-the-goddess-2804206/

Buddha as Medicant
Abanindranath Tagore