The Paintings of
Rabindranath Tagore

Sandip Sarkar

In this article, a very interesting analysis is attempted by the eminent art historian and critic, Sandip Sarkar, to de-mystify a lot of vague impressions as regards the art of Rabindranath Tagore. Through research and careful sifting of welldocumented chronology of events, Mr. Sarkar leads us quite evocatively to the heart of the work of admittedly, ‘one of the most original painters of our time’ ; Rabindranath Tagore.

Poetry and paintings have elective affinities. At least poets and painters have thought so. In the Chinese tradition the painters had in-built poems within the painterly composition. In the west poets like Goethe, Hugo and Mayokovosky had seriously tried to draw and sketch. Blake and Rabindranath showed equal interest in art and poetry. Their achievements in both the fields demand equal attention from us. On the other hand, since the days of Baudelaire, poets have shown great admiration for artists and their art. Poets like Baudelaire, Appolonaire, Aragon, Elluard, Herbert Read, Ezra Pound and Bishnu Dey have either been great critics or elegant writers on art. Rainer Marie Rilke had become Rodin’s secretary for a brief while.