Jamini Roy (1887-1972)

Jamini Roy was trained as an academic painter in the European style and his early landscapes from the 1920s reflect the influence of French Impressionist painting. Although purchased from the artist's studio at a later date stylistically this work appears to be from this early period.  By the mid-1920s Roy began to draw inspiration from indigenous folk traditions.  He was inspired by the minimalist style of the Kalighat tradition and by the mid-1930s he had followed the Kalighat idiom back to its original source - the pata 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 following three lots (lots 4-6) belong to this later phase.  The surface of these paintings become scattered with decorative symbols, floral motifs, short wavy lines and daubs of color linked together by swooping arcs.