VIDYA BHAWAN BALIKA VIDYAPITH

Subject : Fine Art (painting) class : 12th science/com

Date : 09/05/20 RADHAKISHOR MONDAL

HISTORY OF INDIAN ART

Bengal School of Art

Bharat Mata by Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951), a nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore, and a
pioneer of the movement

The Bengal School of Art commonly referred as Bengal School, was an art
movement and a style of Indian painting that originated in Bengal,
primarily Kolkata and Shantiniketan, and flourished throughout the Indian
subcontinent, during the British Raj in the early 20th century. Also known as 'Indian
style of painting' in its early days, it was associated with Indian
 nationalism (swadeshi) and led by Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951), but was also
promoted and supported by British arts administrators like E. B. Havell, the principal
of the Government College of Art, Kolkata from 1896; eventually it led to the
development of the modern Indian painting.
The Bengal school arose as an avant garde and nationalist movement reacting against
the academic art styles previously promoted in India, both by Indian artists such
as Raja Ravi Varma and in British art schools. Following the influence of Indian
spiritual ideas in the West, the British art teacher Ernest Binfield Havell attempted to
reform the teaching methods at the Calcutta School of Art by encouraging students to
imitate Mughal miniatures. This caused controversy, leading to a strike by students
and complaints from the local press, including from nationalists who considered it to
be a retrogressive move. Havell was supported by the artist Abanindranath Tagore, a
nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore painted a number of works
influenced by Mughal art, a style that he and Havell believed to be expressive of India's
distinct spiritual qualities, as opposed to the "materialism" of the West. Tagore's best-
known painting, Bharat Mata (Mother India), depicted a young woman, portrayed with
four arms in the manner of Hindu deities, holding objects symbolic of India's national
aspirations. Tagore later attempted to develop links with Japanese artists as part of an
aspiration to construct a pan-Asianist model of art. Through the paintings of 'Bharat
Mata', Abanindranath established the pattern of patriotism. Painters and artists of
Bengal school were Nandalal Bose, M.A.R Chughtai, Sunayani Devi (sister of
Abanindranath Tagore), Manishi Dey, Mukul Dey, Kalipada Ghoshal, Asit Kumar
Haldar, Sudhir Khastgir, Kshitindranath Majumdar, Sughra Rababi, .
The Bengal school's influence in India declined with the spread of modernist ideas in
the 1920s. As of 2012, there has been a surge in interest in the Bengal school of art
among scholars and connoisseurs.
Bimal Sil' was a contemporary of Abanindernath Tagore. He painted in water colours.
His paintings are found in private collections only.
Abanindranath Tagore