Terribly Sympathetic, by Gaganendranath Tagore, lithograph, Calcutta, 1919

In this image the artist touches upon the more violent aspects of colonial India. The lithograph depicts a gigantic and fiendish British politician in evening dress stamps and lashes at tiny fleeing figures of Indians in silhouette. In the background the Vice-Regal Palace designed by Sir Edwin Lutynes is visible.

The cartoon satirized Sir (Joseph) Bampfylde Fuller (1854–1935). In 1905 Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal, separating from Bengal the new province of eastern Bengal and Assam. Fuller, who for a brief period was the officiating chief commissioner of Assam, was a natural choice for the lieutenant-governorship of the new province. In his new office he sought to suppress the anti-partition swadeshi movement. When the anti-partition agitation underwent a shift towards terrorism, Fuller became a target for the revolutionaries, but assassination attempts failed. Fuller retaliated by killing all suspects. A slightly different version of the subject published by O.C. Gangoly seems to be dated May 1919.

R.F.79/2006 Purchased from Mr Robert Cran, Gray's Antique Market, London, W1.

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 is from a collection of 16 lithographs bound in one volume. The lithographs are a series of caricatures of Bengali life, depicting the artist's satirical comments on a range of subjects including the caste system, the hypocrisy of Hindu priests and the double-standards of the affluent western-educated members of society known as the Bhadralok.

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.

This the only one where the artist touches upon the more violent aspects of colonial India. The lithograph depicts a gigantic and fiendish British politician in evening dress stamps and lashes at tiny fleeing figures of Indians in silhouette. In the background the Vice-Regal Palace designed by Sir Edwin Lutynes is visible.

The cartoon satirized Sir (Joseph) Bampfylde Fuller (1854–1935). In 1905 Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal, separating from Bengal the new province of eastern Bengal and Assam. Fuller, who for a brief period was the officiating chief commissioner of Assam, was a natural choice for the lieutenant-governorship of the new province. In his new office he sought to suppress the anti-partition swadeshi movement. When the anti-partition agitation underwent a shift towards terrorism, Fuller became a target for the revolutionaries, but assassination attempts failed. Fuller retaliated by killing all suspects. A slightly different version of the subject published by O.C. Gangoly seems to be dated May 1919.

IS.77-1979