Lot 39: Epar Ganga Opar Ganga Madhikhane Char Tari Maddhye Base Aachen Shiv Saudagar

GAGANENDRANATH TAGORE (1867-1938) Epar Ganga Opar Ganga Madhikhane Char Tari Maddhye Base Aachen Shiv Saudagar initialed 'G.T.' (lower left); further inscribed and signed in Bengali and twice dated '8th August 1929' (on the reverse) watercolour on handmade paper 13 x 10 in. (33 x 25.4 cm.) Executed in 1929 (7)

33 x 25.4 cm.

Mumbai, Delhi Art Gallery, The Art of Bengal, 2014

M. Gangopadhyay, Gagendranath, Calcutta, 1973, p. 32 (illustrated) The Art of Bengal, New Works, exhibition catalogue, Mumbai, 2014, p. 21 (illustrated)

Gifted by the artist to Mohan Lal Private Collection, Kolkata Acquired from the above by the current owner

"On the surface, his watercolours purported to tell stories, but the stories themselves were hidden behind a mysterious twilight world of artificial lights and deep shadows that could not be easily deciphered. The very ambiguities of his poetic imagery prevented the paintings from becoming illustrative, the whole effect heightened by his use of evocative titles" P. Mitter, The Triumph of Modernism, India's artists and the avant-garde 1922-1947, London, 2007, p. 25 A self-taught artist, Gaganendranath Tagore began to paint late in his life, at the age of thirty-eight, much like his uncle Rabindranath Tagore. Along with his brother Abanindranath, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta, in 1907. Apart from his early paintings and illustrations, the artist is known for his unique, colourful cubist constructions, his experiments with black and white photography, and his portfolios of caricatures, Birupa Bajra and Adbhut Lok, biting satires of Bengali society of the time. Painted one year after a major retrospective of his work at the Indian Society of Oriental Art, which won him the title of 'master of modern art in Bengal' from the Englishman newspaper, this painting reflects Tagore's early experiences with ink and brush, under the tutelage of the visiting Japanese artists including Kakuzo Okakura and Yokoyama Taikan. One of the last few works Tagore painted before he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed for the rest of his life, this painting also recalls his earlier monochromatic architectural interiors. Speaking about his nephew's art, Rabindranath Tagore noted, "What profoundly attracted me was the uniqueness of his creation, a lively curiosity in his constant experiments, and some mysterious depth in their imaginative value. Closely surrounded by the atmosphere of a new art movement [...] he sought out his own untrodden path of adventure, attempted marvelous experiments in coloring and made fantastic trials in the magic of light and shade." (R. Tagore, 1938) This painting is titled after a couplet from a famous Bengali song, about the river Ganga with Lord Shiva sitting in its waters. Much later, in 1967, Jyotirmoyee Devi wrote her famous novel of the same title.