Gender Neglect; Bengal School – Dr. Seema Bhalla

Not too long back, a very confident member of the curatorial team of one of the leading galleries in New Delhi reacted rather sharply against the idea of a woman artist who painted in the Bengal school. The conversation was regarding a small water colour of 1943, in wash technique of the Bengal School that was discovered in the garage before it was to be demolished. With confidence and disdain towards my ignorance, she tried to enlighten me that there was no female artist and the young lady had her master’s degree in the subject to support her claim. This incident compelled me to reflect upon the consequential inflexible ideas of an academic degree. Were there any female artists in Bengal school? Have they been neglected or still unidentified in the domain of academia?

Bengal School was an artistic participation of some artists, in the Swaraj movement, at the time when nationalist sentiments were high, intent was sincere and emotions were heightened. The gap between elite and common was erased in this one objective – freedom for the nation. At the time when discussions in intelligentsia from Bengal was centring around the freedom movement and Indian culture versus European , the Tagore family was in the forefront of this significant revolution that also reflected in their art. The imitative of this artistic movement is clearly credited to the association of E.B. Havell, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Abanindranath Tagore.

Ananda Coomaraswamy, impressed with India art, had already published books on Indian art. He was particularly passionate about Indian miniature painting. He was on the forefront of elucidating the beauty and sophistication of Indian miniature painting, explaining- how to perceive and understand the same. Emest Binfield Havell joined the Government School of Art, Calcutta as its principal in 1896. Belonging to a family of artists and educators, he had the sensitivity and understanding of traditional arts and architecture. He had already seen and was mesmerised by the sophisticated paintings of 4-7th A.D. at the caves of Ajanta. Having seen Indian miniature painting and alarmed by its decline due to a preferred shift towards western academic style, he realised the need of its revival and introduced copying of miniature paintings in the curriculum of the college. Interestingly, it was not taken well by the Indian pupils of the college who reacted strongly against the decision, rejecting it as a regressive move. However, Abanindranath Tagore was in concurrence with the opinion of both Havell and Coomaraswamy who realised the importance and need of revival of the traditional Indian art.


Abanindranath Tagore was already aware of the Japanese wash technique that was introduced to him by Okakura Kokuzo who was the guest of Rabindranath Tagore. Later he experimented wash technique after watching two Japanese artists who were sent by Kokuzo- Yokoyama Taikan and Hisbida Sbunso. Abanindranath Tagore created his own wash technique that resulted in the palette of soft dewycolours. This technique was adapted and followed by other artists from Calcutta and Shantiniketan and gave this style the nomenclature – Bengal School. Some of the prominent artists of this school include Gaganendranath Tagore, Nandlal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar, M.A.R. Chugtai, Kshitindrenath Majumdar, Kalipada Ghosal, Sudhir Kashtgir and Sughra Rababi.