Jamini Roy (1887-1972)

The painting was previously in the collection of Count Stanislas Ostorog, Ambassador of France to India from 1951-59

Jamini Roy was trained as an academic painter in the European style and his early landscapes from the 1920's reflect the influence of French impressionist painting. Stylistically this work appears to be from this early period.  As his search for a more indigenous artistic language evolved his works became more closely influenced by the Pat painters and toy makers of rural Bengal (see lots 28 and 29).  The shapes of his figures become simplified and his colors become solid planes, but his works are more than a decorative adaptation of traditional village crafts and he is now generally recognized as one of the first Indian painters to create a uniquely Indian form of modernism.