Sunayani Devi

‘The modernist discourse of primitive simplicity and the nationalist discourse of cultural authenticity come together in the image of Sunayani Devi as a nationalist artist.’

(P. Mitter, The Triumph of Modernism, India’s Artists and the Avant-garde, 1922-1947, Reaktion Books, New Delhi, 2007, p. 43)

Sunayani Devi (1875-1962) was born in Joransko, into the influential Tagore family of West Bengal. Niece of the poet, writer, artist and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, and sister to the celebrated painters Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore, Devi was a female pioneer in the Tagore-led cultural renaissance that swept Bengal and wider India around the turn of the twentieth century. Whilst not bestowed with the same formal artistic training as her brothers, Devi became an astute, accomplished member of the Bengal School of artists. Seeking recourse in Indian mythology as well as domestic scenes for her subject matter, Devi employed pale color washes to achieve a dreamlike lyricism in her works. The current lot was gifted by the artist to her grandson, Arunendranath Tagore, as revealed in Devi's affectionate inscription in Bengali - "To Tota" - her nickname for Arunendranath - "from Grandma Sunayani".