Nandalal Bose 1983

Bengali India Indian Painter Paintings

December 5, 1983

A commemorative postage stamp on the Birth Centenary of Nandalal Basu, an Indian Bengali painter and his painting ‘Pratiksha’ :

Issued by India

Issued on Dec 5, 1983

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 100 Paise

Printed at : India Security Press

Name : Nandalal Bose

Born on Dec 3, 1882 at Kharagpur, Munger, Bengal Presidency, British India [now in Bihar]

Died on Apr 16, 1966 at Calcutta, West Bengal, India

About :

Born on December 3, 1882, the son of Purnachandra Bose and Kshetramani Devi, Nandalal had an innate inclination towards art. Therefore, after his preliminary school education, his parents consented to let him enrol at the College of Art, Calcutta in 1905. He was fortunate to receive the guidance from Abanindranath Tagore who, at that time, was the Vice-Principal. While studying in the College of Art, he won a scholarship, and in 1908 also a prize for his painting Sati Mounting the Pyre. Since then his artistic pursuits and success became companions, providing him respect, admiration and all sorts of worldly and spiritual honours.
He joined the team of Lady Herringham and assisted in making copies of Ajanta paintings in 1910-11; this brought him into close contact with the greatest masterpieces of Indian art.
As soon as he finished his college education, the Principal, Percy Brown, invited him to teach at the College of Art; instead he preferred to avail of the facilities to work at Jorasanko offered by Abanindranath Tagore where he came into contact with Ananda Coomaraswami, Sister Nivedita, Okakura and Rabindranath Tagore whose literary manifestations he enjoyed illustrating for years to come. At his insistence, Nandalal joined the Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan in 1920, and remained its Principal until he retired in 1951.