Important Notice

Born on the 7th of August 1871 at Jorasanko, the family residence of the Tagores, Abanindranath was the son of artist Gunendranath Tagore.

Abanindranath was educated at the Sanskrit College, Kolkata. At the age of 20 he stumbled upon an album of Mughal and Pahari miniatures and was greatly influenced by the fine decorative lines, vibrant colors and the power behind the canvas. Abanindranath wasn't a trained painter; all his creations... Born on the 7th of August 1871 at Jorasanko, the family residence of the Tagores, Abanindranath was the son of artist Gunendranath Tagore.

Abanindranath was educated at the Sanskrit College, Kolkata. At the age of 20 he stumbled upon an album of Mughal and Pahari miniatures and was greatly influenced by the fine decorative lines, vibrant colors and the power behind the canvas. Abanindranath wasn't a trained painter; all his creations are his work as a self-trained artist.

Though he entered into the art world at a later age, he matured as a painter very soon time, absorbing ideas and developing his own oeuvre. His work has a great delicacy of feeling, unity of concept, a highly sensitive range of color, tone, texture and poetic depth.

He was soon regarded as the father of India's modern art. This probably was the influence and training he received from Italian artist Signior Chilardi, Vice Principal of Government School of art and with English Painter Charles Palmer.

Abanindranath turned to Indian traditional art only in 1895 and for ten years he then experimented with the Rajput style of painting. During this period he created a series of Radha and Krishna and also worked on the Krishna Leela episode between 1895 and 1905.

The year 1905 has a great significance in Abanindranath's life. It was at this time that he came into contact with Japanese artists Tikan and Hesida and he learnt the wash method in watercolor from them.

In the same year, he laid the foundation for the Bengal school of Indian painting, where he finally led the revivalist movement in the field of modern Indian paintings with the help of a band of disciples - A K Haldar, K N Majumdar, S N Gupta and a host of others.

He viewed art as work being strung together on a sustained level and continuously. His work was a mixture of traditionalism and innovation. More so probably because, when he arrived on the art scene Indian art was in a confused stage.

He aimed at comparing nature in its transient forms and produce an image part object, part sensuous, both transposed into each other. But his vision on nature was always poetic, as was his personal form of expression.

When art was replete with romanticism Abanindranath established his anti idealistic stance by declaring that, "if art could realize perfect beauty the whole show would have ended long ago."

Abanindranath's talent with the brush and his unorthodox teaching methods earned him a repute at the Government College of Art at Kolkata, where he joined as the vice-principal under Dr E B Havell. Havell himself was enamored with the richness of India's artistic tradition and pioneered the rejection of the rigors of learning European art in Indian art schools. He strongly favored Indian art that would spring from deep-seated national sentiment

Nicholas Roerich observed the glorious development of Indian art and explained Abanindranath's importance in it as "A power beacon, as a guru of an entire school of art." He is also known to have said the following about Abanindranath Tagore, "The emotions packed in his paintings in their imaginative genuine rhythm is full of poetic symbolism. His paintings seem to say to his master we are singing of his hand and heart."

Apart from his early connection as Vice-Principal, Government School of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata, he founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Kolkata (1907); Bageswari Professor of Fine Arts, Kolkata University (1923-24).

He died on 5th December 1951. His works are declared as National Art Treasures. The largest number of paintings by Abanindranath - over 500 - forms a part of Rabindra Bharati Society's collection at Jorasanko, Kolkata. Abanindranath's paintings were exhibited in London and Paris in 1913, followed by another international exhibition in Japan in 1919. His appreciative audience included Rodin and Rothenstein.

The influence of Abanindranath on modern Indian art is profound and under his guidance a new generation of painters- Nandalal Bose, Asit Halder, Kshitindranath Majumder and Jamini Roy - brought about a revival in Indian art.

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