Lot 53: HEMENDRANATH MAZUMDAR (1894 - 1948)

HEMENDRANATH MAZUMDAR (1894 - 1948) Untitled Oil on canvas 48 1/8 x 24 1/8 in. (122.2 x 61.2 cm.) Signed 'H. MAZUMDAR' lower right The appointment of E.B. Havell as principal of the Calcutta School of Art in 1894 is often regarded as a decisive moment in the development of Modern Indian art, because of the support he gave to the revivalist style of painting exemplified by the works of Abanindranath Tagore and his followers. However, in 1909, when he retired he was replaced by an Englishman, Percy Brown who reintroduced naturalist drawing into the faculty curriculum. This change of emphasis allowed for the ongoing survival of academic naturalism in Bengal. The most prominent figure to become influenced by this change was Hemendranath Mazumdar. Although Mazumdar is frequently described as a self-taught artist, he actually ran away from home to study at the Calcutta School of Art. He later moved on to the Jubilee Art Academy, which further reinforced his academic approach to art that remained a dominant feature of his painting style. In 1921, Mazumdar and Bhabani Charan Law set up the Society of Fine Arts. Here they staged annual exhibitions with contributors from all over India. They also launched a new journal in which they published reproductions of their own works and articles criticising the Bengal school. Throughout his career, Mazumdar's ongoing focus was the female form. He painted portraits to make a living, but whilst such commissions provided a steady income, he also achieved both critical and commercial success with semi-erotic images of scantily clad models. 'The subject of a rustic maiden returning home in a wet sari after her daily ablutions, gave the artist scope to represent the models fleshy buttocks and rounded shoulders partially visiblethrough her wet cloth.... He lovingly delineated the rounded nape of the neck, the fleshy contours of the shoulders, the small of the back, the concave of the spinal column, the hips and buttocks. For all its clever suggestion of an arrested movement, the work was carefully realised in the studio. In order to capture the particular pose he also used photographs.' (Partha Mitter, The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-1947, New Delhi, 2007, pp.133-35.) These sensuous oils with their discreetly erotic subjects became popular with several Maharajas at the time including the maharajas of Jaipur, Bikaner, Kotah, Kashmir, Cooch, Behar, Patiala and other princely states, the Maharaja of Patiala, Sir Bhupindranth Singh (1891-1938) even appointed Mazumdar 'Court Painter'.

Formerly in the collection of a Maharaja and then by descent to the current owner.