Nandalal Bose

From craft observation to art training

Bose grew up around Kharagpur and Darbhanga, watching local artisans and making clay objects. After unsuccessful academic studies in Calcutta, he studied art with Abanindranath Tagore. In 1909 he joined Lady Herringham’s work copying the Ajanta murals.

Sources for this section: [1]

A school and an expanding visual vocabulary

His practice drew on murals, miniatures, folk traditions and encounters with East Asian art. He explored painting, printmaking and drawing rather than adopting one medium as a permanent signature.

Visva-Bharati records his settlement at Santiniketan in 1923, taking charge of Kala Bhavana. Travels with Rabindranath Tagore brought further encounters with Asian arts and crafts.

Sources for this section: [2] · [1]

Public projects made with others

For the Haripura Congress setting, Gandhi commissioned work that represented village occupations and daily activity. Bose’s colleagues and students included Benodebehari Mukherjee, Biswarup Bose, Shri Perumal and Sukhamoy Mitra. Panels belonged to an environment of gates and temporary structures.

The later NGMA account describes assistants replicating designs for that setting. It also records Bose’s concern that teaching and administration reduced time for his own art.

Sources for this section: [3] · [4]

Later work and a continuing educational legacy

His substantial later output included intimate drawings and postcards as well as more elaborate paintings. He died at Santiniketan in 1966.

The 2008 Rhythms of India exhibition, organised by the San Diego Museum of Art with NGMA, placed his work beside that of his teacher and students. This wider frame helps preserve the educational relationships around the individual artist.

Sources for this section: [2] · [5]