Painting, cartoon, by Gaganendranath Tagore, watercolour on postcard, Kolkata, 1920s

This postcard, painted in watercolour, depicts 7 blue vases (pillars) of increasing sizes. Each vase contains a plant form, the final three also showing an Indian head among the leaves, to represent stages in a hypothetical evolution from lotus bud in the first stage to westernised Indian academic with cigarette, wearing jacket and tie underneath a saffron-coloured robe in the final stage. This last stage is seen through a magnifying lens mounted on a table stand. The entire scene is lit under an artificial lamp marked as 'academic light' at the top.

The cartoon appeared in larger scale in Modern Review. The artist inscribed on the reverse: 'My dear Roop, what do you think of this botanical cartoon? Many thanks for your postcard. It is very hot here. All well here. Your affectionate, Gaganendranath Tagore'. There is no postmark or stamp. (Roop Krishna was born in Lahore and moved to Calcutta to study painting under Gaganendranath and Abanindranath. He was involved with the Oriental Society of Oriental Art (1908). Krishna enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London under Sir William Rothenstein where he developed his own modernist style. The artist was part of Gertrude Stein's circle of poets and artists.)

The cartoon presumably refers to pressure in Indian academic circles to conform to Western ideals of scholarship. The idea for this botanical treatment may have been suggested by the experiments conducted by the Bengali scientist by Jagadish Chandra Bose on plant growth. The scientist had shown that plant growth was shown to be accelerated by constant exposure to simulated sunlight.

R.F.84/1984 The postcard was purchased with the help of Partha Mitter from Sotheby's in 1984.

Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938) was a satirical cartoonist and painter. Born in Calcutta, Gaganendranath grew up in a family whose exceptional creativity spearheaded Calcutta's cultural scene. Gaganendranath was nephew of poet Rabindranath Tagore and brother of Abanindranath Tagore, the pioneer and leading exponent of the Bengal School of Art.

The artist received no formal education but was trained under the British school watercolourist Harinarayan Bandopadhyay. In 1907, he founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art with his brother Abanindranath. Between 1906 and 1910, the artist assimilated the Japanese brush technique and Far Eastern pictorial conventions into his own work (see his illustrations for Rabindranath Tagore's autobiography Jeevansmriti published in 1912.) From 1910 until 1914, Gaganendranath developed his own approach to SUMI-E or black ink (see Chaitanya series and Pilgrim series.)

Between 1915 and 1919, the artist, with the help of his brother, set up the Bichitra club in the Tagore family house. The club served as an important social, intellectual and artistic hub of cultural life in Calcutta, where many artists, including Nandalal Bose, A.K. Haldar and Suren Kar worked at their paintings.

During these years, Gaganendranath abandoned the ideological revivalism embraced by the Bengal School of Art and took up caricature to satirize the westernised middle class of urban Bengal. The artist's popularity was secured in 1917 when Modern Review published many of his shrewd cartoons. From 1917 onwards, his lithographs appeared in a series of books, including: Play of Opposites, Realm of the Absurd and Reform Screams. In these mocking pieces, the austerity of Kalighat paintings is wedded to the simplicity of Japanese prints. Between 1920 until 1925, Gaganendranath, informed about modern European art, pioneered experiments in cubism colour and in ink. His work however, was pictorially closer to the dynamism of Italian Futurism rather than the work of Picasso and Braque. From 1925 onwards, the artist developed a complex post-cubist style. Gaganendranath's work has been exhibited internationally.

This postcard depicts 7 blue vases (pillars) of increasing sizes. Each vase contains a plant form, the final three also showing an Indian head among the leaves, to represent stages in a hypothetical evolution from lotus bud in the first stage to westernised Indian academic with cigarette, wearing jacket and tie underneath a saffron-coloured robe in the final stage. This last stage is seen through a magnifying lens mounted on a table stand. The entire scene is lit under an artificial lamp marked as 'academic light' at the top.

The cartoon appeared in larger scale in Modern Review. The artist inscribed on the reverse: 'My dear Roop, what do you think of this botanical cartoon? Many thanks for your postcard. It is very hot here. All well here. Your affectionate, Gaganendranath Tagore.'

The cartoon presumably refers to pressure in Indian academic circles to conform to Western ideals of scholarship. The idea for this botanical treatment may have been suggested by the experiments conducted by the Bengali scientist by Jagadish Chandra Bose on plant growth. The scientist had shown that plant growth was shown to be accelerated by constant exposure to simulated sunlight.

IS.195-1984