Important Notice

Narayan Shridhar Bendre's interest in the genre of the landscape was encouraged during his initial training in fine art in Indore, and further nurtured by the sights he encountered on his extensive travels around India.

Amongst the artist's most initial travels was a sojourn in Kashmir in the 1936 with the artist V.A. Mali. This trip, originally intended as a short expedition to "explore new truths", ended up lasting close to three... Narayan Shridhar Bendre's interest in the genre of the landscape was encouraged during his initial training in fine art in Indore, and further nurtured by the sights he encountered on his extensive travels around India.

Amongst the artist's most initial travels was a sojourn in Kashmir in the 1936 with the artist V.A. Mali. This trip, originally intended as a short expedition to "explore new truths", ended up lasting close to three years, and had a deep impact on his work over the course of his career. As the artist's biographer, Ram Chatterji, explains, "It was spring in Srinagar and few places in the world could match its charm" (Bendre: The Painter and the Person, The Bendre Foundation for Art and Culture & Indus Corporation, Toronto, 1990, p. 15). That summer Bendre and Mali became the first Indian artists to exhibit at the European Club in Srinagar and Gulmarg, and soon after Bendre applied and was hired as an artist-journalist with the Srinagar Visitors' Bureau.

The present lot, an attractive Kashmiri landscape, is likely based on the artist's memories of springtime in Srinagar from the period he lived there. Here, the city's famous Dal Lake, often referred to as the 'Jewel in Kashmir's Crown', reflects the pristine blue sky, while a lone shikara, or traditional wooden boat, makes its way to the stepped embankment. On the shore, a traditional Kashmiri house with wooden bracing seems to teeter as precariously over the lake as the tree next to it. From this painting, and other works by the artist, it is clear that in his practice, he "... shuns obsession, any scientific or psychological dogma. He has no message. It is not his business to preach. He only wishes to share with you the joys the world has in store." (Ibid., p. 61).

Following early trysts with Cubism and Expressionism as vehicles for the Indian themes he chose to express in his paintings, Bendre turned his attention to Pointillism in the late 1960s, "finding the new technique suitable to capture the emotional gestalt of a particular scene." (Amrita Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Indian Artists, India Book House, Mumbai, 2005, p.19). It is the artist's pointillist landscapes like the present lot, that mark one of the most significant chapters of his career.

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