Lot 27
  • 27

Jamini Roy (1887-1972)

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Jamini Roy
  • Gopini
  • Signed in Bengali lower right
  • Tempera on cloth
  • 33 1/2 by 18 in. (85.5 by 45.7 cm.)

Provenance

Purchased by the current owner's grandfather in a New York Gallery in 1964

Catalogue Note

As a young artist Jamini Roy spent many years mastering the tenets of European Academic painting but by the mid-1920's he began to draw inspiration from indigenous folk traditions.  He was inspired by the minimalist style of the Kalighat tradition and by the mid-1930's he had followed the Kalighat idiom back to its original source, the Pat paintings of rural Bengal.  The soft curvilinear strokes of his earlier Kalighat style were replaced by a more angular and geometric approach.  The contours in these later works are shallower and the eyes of the figures are sharper with pointed ends.  The current and following three lots belong to this later phase.  The surface of the painting also becomes scattered with decorative symbols, floral motifs, short wavy lines and daubs of color linked together by swooping arcs.

Gopini was a popular theme with the artist but the dark skin tone of the present subject makes this an unusual work.