Paritosh Sen

Acquired directly from the artist by fellow art student, George Benjamin Baylous, Paris, circa early 1950s

Gifted by the above in 1970

Thence by descent

George Benjamin Baylous opened Pan American Galleries in San Antonio where he displayed paintings of his own and other artists, including the present lot. Two Sisters was gifted to the previous owner after the gallery closed and shortly before Baylous’ death in 1972.

Paritosh Sen was a member of the Calcutta Group, a collective of artists in Bengal founded in 1943. Alongside other core members such as Prodosh Dasgupta, Gopal Ghosh and Nirode Mazumdar, the Calcutta Group was not concerned with finding a nationalistic identity but rather to depict the social and political environment at the time, including the Great Bengal Famine. Drawing from Indian idioms, the group was one of the earliest efforts to introduce international aesthetic traditions to create a global language.

In 1949, Sen moved to Paris, training under Andre Lhote and studying at the Academie la Grande Chumiere, exploring mural painting at École des Beaux-Arts and learning the history of art at the École du Louvre. Sen encountered Picasso in the city and he was a major influence on the artist, particularly Cubist portraiture. The present work is from a rare group of early works produced during this time. In earthy brown and red tones, Two Sisters depicts an embrace where the geometric components of their bodies are intertwined. Sen is experimenting with the languages of Cubism and Expressionism, clearly as a result of his exposure and education in Paris.

“One of the important lessons I learnt during my stay in Paris was the reversal of the old subject-picture relationship. The picture now as a picture took the lead by a total elimination of the element of story-telling… the external reality, therefore, became merely a cause, important not by itself but in its consequences – expression, intensity and quality. Form became less and less dependent on the appearance of things seen. The expression had to justify the means.” (India’s French Connection: Indian Artists in France, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2018, p. 150)