Important Notice

In the genre of realism painting in Indian art history, one of the key figures to redefine the style was Hemendranath Majumdar, after Raja Ravi Varma. While the latter played an important role in creating a new concept of feminine beauty, it was primarily the work of Majumdar in painting realistic studies of the female form through his preferred medium of oils that managed to effectively challenge existing norms.

An ardent advocate... In the genre of realism painting in Indian art history, one of the key figures to redefine the style was Hemendranath Majumdar, after Raja Ravi Varma. While the latter played an important role in creating a new concept of feminine beauty, it was primarily the work of Majumdar in painting realistic studies of the female form through his preferred medium of oils that managed to effectively challenge existing norms.

An ardent advocate of naturalism in painting, Majumdar emerged as an artist of repute around the time when the Abanindranath Tagore-led Bengal School of painting was beginning to lose its urgency and relevance in favour of the emerging modernists of the 1940s. He was, in fact, never convinced by the 'Indianising' tenets of the Bengal School, choosing to define his working process as part of the European academic style - producing preparatory sketches first, followed by more detailed pencil and wash studies, and finally, the finely composed painting. This garnered the attention of the Maharajas of Jaipur, Kashmir, Bikaner, Patiala, Cooch Bihar, and other princely states, which led to Majumdar being commissioned as a state artist for five years by Sir Bhupindranath Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala from 1891-1938. Along with fellow practitioners of the realism style of painting, Majumdar founded the Society of Fine Arts. Their first exhibition in 1921-22 displayed over 1,000 paintings by academic artists across India, including, perhaps, the present lot.

Given Majumdar's style of figure painting - one that focussed primarily on the sensuality of the female form, intensified by the 'drenched-sari' look - it is unsurprising that his works resonated with the Bengali middle class in the 1920s and '30s. As art historian Partha Mitter discusses in Hemen Mazumdar: The Last Romantic, Majumdar's audience was drawn to the "intimacy and immediacy" of his portrayed women. "They were not impersonal figures learned from art schools but palpable, breathing, real women...He thus invented a new genre of figure painting in India, suggesting sensuous flesh tones and soft quality of the skin, enhanced by the semitransparent garment." (Partha Mitter, "The Bengali artist who popularised the 'wet sari effect' and invented a new genre of figure painting," scroll.in, 6 February 2019, online)

This, in turn, made the women in his paintings more real and accessible to the beholder since he chose to capture everyday moments from his subjects' lives: perhaps a young woman returning home after her daily bath, a silk sari-clad woman engrossed in her thoughts, a woman washing her feet along the riverbank, a woman in reverie, and so on. Majumdar's real forte, according to Mitter, lay in his ability to depict the back view of the female figure in various poses, as seen in the present lot. This "gave him an opportunity to bring out in a convincing manner the sensuous layers and folds of smooth youthful flesh, with a hint of muscles and the bone structure." (Mitter, online)

The subject and composition of the present lot is one that the artist returned to a few times. A similar work was once displayed on the walls of the Mayurbhanj Palace at Baripada, Odisha (whose Maharaja was a patron of Majumdar's), while another work titled Abhiman (Wounded Vanity) sold in auction in 2018 at $736,083 (413,750), the highest price achieved for a work by the artist. These paintings depict a woman with her face turned away from the viewer, resting on her arm to convey a sense of sorrow and dejection. Her luminous flesh tones stand out in dramatic contrast to the darker background that is only enhanced by the dark tones of the silken sari she is draped in. However, each work has its unique differences, whether in the background details, in the slight tilt of her posture, or colour palette. In each rendition, Majumdar adds a distinct and singular perspective to the painting and theme.
.br.Despite the socially conservative atmosphere of Bengal of the 1920s, Majumdar succeeded in capturing the public imagination, while simultaneously pushing aesthetic and societal boundaries with his bold treatment of the female figure. "A contemporary critic put it well: at a time when women were behind purdah, it was daring to represent someone from a respectable middle class, someone unapproachable in real life... The artist's tantalising silence about the identity of the model heightened the mystery surrounding her. It is this ambiguity that made such a powerful appeal to the Bengali middle class." (Mitter, online)

Records indicate that Majumdar, in the final years of his life, visited zamindari houses by invitation to paint portraits of various family members. It is believed that the present lot was commissioned by the family of Butto Kristo Paul during Majumdar's two-years long stay with them.

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site