Details
Hemendranath Mazumdar (1894 - 1948)
Bhig Kapud
Signed 'H Mazumdar' lower right
Oil on canvas
36 x 25 in. (91.4 x 63.5 cm.)

Lot Essay

Mazumdar resisted the 'Indianising' trends of the Bengal School to become a successful Academic painter. The style of his paintings followed in the tradition of Raja Ravi Varma, and covered the same range of religious and mythological themes, focusing mainly on sensual studies of women.

Paintings of semi-nude females would have been quite shocking to the audience of his day. To ensure a sense of modesty was upheld in his work, Mazumdar tended to hint at nudity by draping his models in semi-transparent or wet saris; a technique that was later adopted by Indian cinema.

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