Abanindranath, Havell and the Bengal School

The Bengal School began in Calcutta in the first decade of the twentieth century. It was tied to the Swadeshi movement, and was led by Abanindranath Tagore with E. B. Havell, principal of the Calcutta School of Art. Both criticised the forcing of European taste on Indian art.

From 1896, they worked to make art education at the Government Art School, Calcutta, more Indian. They looked for inspiration to Mughal and Pahari miniatures, rather than to Company or academic painting.

Abanindranath's Journey's End (1913) uses a soft, misty wash technique to show a collapsed camel at dusk, at the end of its journey. He also founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art.

Kshitindranath Majumdar's Rasa-Lila shows slender, rustic figures in delicate wash; Krishna and the gopis are drawn in the same proportion, without making him larger.

Abdul Rehman Chughtai's Radhika combines wash with the calligraphic line of Mughal and Persian painting. Radhika walks away from a lamp, as if in a trance.