Important Notice

In his search for an artistic expression, Jamini Roy delved into his roots, often incorporating elements from traditional art forms such as Kalighat patuas and Bankura paintings in his works. His paintings primarily feature characters, often from Indian mythology, rendered in a limited range of flat, earthy colours and decisive lines. The present lot depicts a dancer, perhaps a gopini, in a sculptural tribhanga pose. Despite its simplicity,... In his search for an artistic expression, Jamini Roy delved into his roots, often incorporating elements from traditional art forms such as Kalighat patuas and Bankura paintings in his works. His paintings primarily feature characters, often from Indian mythology, rendered in a limited range of flat, earthy colours and decisive lines. The present lot depicts a dancer, perhaps a gopini, in a sculptural tribhanga pose. Despite its simplicity, details such as her costume, accessories and the red alta on her hands are carefully accentuated. “Jamini Roy’s images of Bengali women, at once voluptuous and demure, displaying the alta?painted hands and feet of domestic duty, have become the most iconic of Roys. With their graceful gestures, they came, in troubled times, to represent familiarity. This inimitable image of the Bengali woman became a universal icon for Calcutta’s middle classes and it was this iconography that fed the nostalgia of the Bengali bhadralok.” (Sona Datta, Urban Patua: The Art of Jamini Roy, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2010, p. 26)

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