Important Notice

"Jamini Roy is popularly remembered as the first Indian artist to have rejected the fashionable art world of the urban elite in Calcutta, to 'return' to explore the visual stimulus of his childhood, through which he formulated a ultimately forged a new trajectory for modern art in India" (Sona Datta, Urban Patua: The Art of Jamini Roy, Marg Publications, 2010, pg. 14). Jamini Roy's childhood - spent in the remote village of Beliatore in West... "Jamini Roy is popularly remembered as the first Indian artist to have rejected the fashionable art world of the urban elite in Calcutta, to 'return' to explore the visual stimulus of his childhood, through which he formulated a ultimately forged a new trajectory for modern art in India" (Sona Datta, Urban Patua: The Art of Jamini Roy, Marg Publications, 2010, pg. 14). Jamini Roy's childhood - spent in the remote village of Beliatore in West Bengal - began with a fascination for village crafts. He carried this interest with him throughout his life, but it first manifested during the wave of nationalist sentiment that erupted in Calcutta, and gradually the rest of India, during the freedom struggle for independence.

With Mahatma Gandhi's rhetoric of Swaraj (home rule) - which espoused the use of "swadeshi" goods - reaching patriotic fervour in the early 20th century, many Indian artists sought to adopt a similar position in art. Spearheaded by Abanindranath Tagore, these artists emphatically rejected the Western school of art and its various styles of painting in favour of an older, traditional aesthetic. Roy was one of the many artists to be influenced by this movement in the 1920s. "Swept up in the feverish desire of the time for an Indian national identity, Jamini Roy was himself transformed into a political symbol, though his revolution was unequivocally a pictorial one" (Ibid., pg. 17).

Conversely, Roy's training began when he joined the Government School of Art in Calcutta in 1903. His early paintings of landscapes and portraits reflected a Post-Impressionist style, very much in keeping with his education in a British academic system. This rare Self Portrait harkens back to this phase. The realistic form, muted monochromatic colours and emphasis on variegated textures, belie his later works.

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