Indian Paintings

Part 4

Modern Indian Paintings

Many consider that the modern period in Indian art began around 1857 with the Bengal School of Painting.
Raja Ravi Varma is credited as the Father of Modern Indian Art.
The essential characteristics of the modern or contemporary art are a certain freedom from invention, the acceptance of an eclectic approach, a positive elevation of technique and the emergence of the artist as a distinct individual.
The Bengal school of art relying on India’s rich cultural past, resurrected primitivism as a reaction to Western influence.
This was started by Abanindranath Tagore as an attempt to stem the western influence on Indian culture.

It is a hybrid painting style, combining Rajput, Mughal, and other Indian painting styles with European influences.
These were the results of British Company officers hiring painters who had been schooled in Indian styles.
They were set apart by their use of water colour and the appearance of linear perspective and shading in technique.
These types of paintings ultimately came to be known as ‘Company Paintings’.

They differed from the Company paintings in that the company paintings combined European and Indian methods and themes.
However, Bazaar school was influenced by Roman and Greek culture rather than Indian culture.
The depiction of Indian courtesans dancing before British officials was one of the most well-known genres.

Raja Ravi Varma was a remarkable self-taught Indian painter from the princely state of Travancore in modern day Kerala.
He is widely regarded as the founder of the contemporary painting school.
He was unique in that he combined elements of South Indian art with western colour and style techniques.
Because of his bright brush strokes and extremely lifelike paintings, he was dubbed the “Raphael of the East”.
He is most remembered for his paintings of beautiful sari-clad women, who were portrayed as shapely and graceful.
Varma became the best-known allegorist of Indian subjects in his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

The Bengal School arose as a reaction against the western influence in the artistic and cultural sphere of the country.
The Bengal school was founded on the writings of Abhanindranath Tagore in the early twentieth century.
He attempted to infuse Swadeshi values into Indian art and to lessen the influence of Western art styles on artists.
Bharat Mata and other Mughal-themed paintings are among his most well-known works.
Nandlal Bose is another renowned painter from this school, whose works influenced the development of modern Indian art.