Beschreibung:

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)Untitled (West Bengal Landscape)
signed 'Shri Rabindra' in Bengali lower left, circa late 1920s
ink on paper, framed
21.2 x 29.4cm (8 3/8 x 11 9/16in).FootnotesProvenance
Property from a private collection, California;
Gifted to Nina Collier by Tagore in 1930;
Thence by descent.
Exhibited
1930, Rabindranath Tagore Exhibition of Paintings, The Fifty-Sixth Street Galleries, 6 East 56th Street, New York, 20th November - 17th December 1930.
1953, Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Arts and Crafts, sponsored by the Government of India and organised by the Academy of Fine Art, Bombay at the Smithsonian.
1961, Asia Society, 1961 Birth Centenary Celebrations of Tagore.
'Now in the evening of my life, my mind is filled with forms and colours.' (Rabindranath Tagore to Romain Rolland, when they met in Geneva in August 1930)
'Nobody knowns what sparked off Tagore's frenzied burst of drawing and painting. Amiya Chakravarty, his personal secretary for many years says: 'Art ... was for him man's response to the mystery of design.' But the question is: Why did Tagore respond to the mystery of design so late in life, when he had only a few more years to live? The way Tagore's paintings were made was also strange. He never used a palette. Almost all his paintings were pen-drawn. There was something Vesuvian about his art. It came out like the eruption of a volcano. He literally threw himself into sheets of paper, sometimes knocking off several paintings in a single day. His paintings were emotion recollected more in turmoil than in tranquillity.' (The Art of Tagore, New Delhi, 2004, p.6)
'Tagore as an artist did not borrow his style readymade from some school of orthodox or prevailing systems, as most of the professional artists do. His art was no stifled in a set of dogma; instead both his poetry and painting betrayed an awesome wonder at whatever he perceived as a maker of form. Though both shared the same wonder, there was a tonal difference between the two. His poetical work shows his deepest concern for the sublime and the beautiful associated with the sacred and the mystique, his paintings verged on the side of what may be termed as non-beautiful. At times, he showed concern for distortion and even the grotesque.' (Sovon Som, Tagore's Paintings: Versification in Line, New Delhi, 2011, p.43-45.)
'Rabindranath...often begins creating even before the subject has taken any conscious form in his mind. This might easily lead one to suppose that mere craftsmanship or mere architectural design or the mere effect of colours were his end, but when the picture is complete we discover all the essential constituents of a work of art in it, all blended in one subject and pervaded by that rhythm of life which the hand of genius alone can impart. That is why his paintings are always real, though rarely realistic.' (Nandalal Bose The paintings of Rabindranath, Visva-Bharti Quarterly, Calcutta, February 1936, p.31.)
'There are hundreds of landscapes some of which capture, with naïve accuracy, qualities of the Indian atmosphere: evening light on the monsoon pond, in the mango grove. The paper is soaked in a golden yellow or a phosphorescent green, sometimes turquoise, or sepia, and the trees are painted black, their crowns edged with the jagged white of the paper showing through - landscapes that offer, as Coomaraswamy said about them, 'a witchery of colour.' (Tate Gallery, Six Indian Painters, London, 1982, p.18.)
'People often ask me about the meaning of my pictures. I remain silent even as my pictures are. It is for them to express and not to explain. They have nothing ulterior behind their own appearance for the thoughts to explore and words to describe and if that appearance carries its ultimate worth then they remain, otherwise they are rejected and forgotten even though they may have some scientific truth or ethical justification.'(Rabindranath Tagore in Exhibition of Paintings by Rabindranath Tagore The Fifty-Sixth Street Galleries, New York, November 1930.)
'It was out of gratitude to Miss Perera that the Poet asked her to select examples of his paintings as his gift to his young representative...Two landscapes are good examples of the mysterious depths where the eye is led to distant glades.' (Nina Collier's text for the Centenary Exhibition.)
'For two years or so I have been making drawings with coloured inks. I cannot claim any merit for my courage, for it is the unconscious courage of the unsophisticated, like that of one who walks in a dream on a perilous path, who is saved only because he is blind to the risk.'(Rabindranath Tagore India's poet who waits for the dawn, New York Times, 19th October 1930.)
'The only training which I had from my young days was the training in rhythm, the rhythm in thought, the rhythm in sound...My pictures are my versification in lines. If by change they are entitled to claim recognition it must be primarily for some rhythmic significance of form which is ultimate, and not for any interpretation of an idea, or representation of a fact.' (Rabindranath Tagore An Exhibition of Drawings by Rabindranath Tagore May 28th, 1930.)
'Some painters cannot be labelled or put in any class. They are in a class of their own. You cannot compare them with other painters because no other painter is like them. They have no imitators, no followers. They are unique. Hieronymus Bosch El Greco and Tagore were unique in this special sense.
Albrecht Dürer once said of Bosch's paintings that nothing like them was ever 'seen before nor thought of by any other man.' It nearly sums up what you can say about Tagore's paintings. The grotesque creatures which people the universe of his paintings, the surreal landscapes sadly glowing with a light that never was on sea or land, the bizarre and haunting faces that look and do not look at you...they all exist in world way beyond reality. Most artists paint only what they see. Tagore painted what he did not see. Or saw only in his mind. He did not want to 'sit in the stagnation of realism.'
Why did Tagore paint like that? What we once told Ranee Chanda may offer a clue: 'The delight is in the seeing...not in what we see. Nor in its beauty or non-beauty. What pleases in a painting is the reality of the image.
But Tagore's idea of 'reality' was out of this world. Literally. He said: 'There are two kinds of reality in the world. One of them is true and the other truer. I seek to occupy myself with the truer.
Tagore burst into painting in his late sixties and continued to painting until he died. He left behind more than 2500 paintings and drawings, all done between 1928-41, the last thirteen years of his life...
Tagore had a go at drawing when he was quite young. 'Toying with picture making,' he called it. But after a few attempts he apparently gave it up...Nobody knows what sparked off Tagore's frenzied burst of drawing and painting...The way Tagore's paintings were made was also strange. He never used a palette. Almost all his paintings were pen-drawn. There was something Vesuvian about his art. It came out like the eruption of a volcano. He literally threw himself into sheets of paper, sometimes knocking off several paintings in a single day. His paintings were emotion recollected more in turmoil than in tranquillity.' (Rupa & Co, The Art of Tagore, India, 2004, p.6-7)
As a multifaceted artist, Tagore's landscapes offer us an intimate glimpse into his contemplative spirit, his deep appreciation for the natural world, and his unique ability to translate his poetic sensibilities onto the canvas. Both works are landscapes, and yet they are distinct. They evoke a quietude that mirrors the meditative quality of his written words and also bear witness to his distinctive fusion of the traditional and the modern. He has drawn inspiration from the rich artistic heritage of India, yet he has infused these works with a contemporary sensibility that transcends cultural and temporal boundaries. His ability to balance the timeless with the contemporary results in these two landscapes that feel both familiar and refreshingly innovative.
Tagore travelled extensively throughout his life and his journey to America in 1930 was characterized by intellectual exchange, artistic exploration, and the fostering of cross-cultural understanding. His visit to America was marked by a fervent desire to bridge the gap between the East and West and to forge connections between two seemingly disparate worlds. His interactions with American thinkers, artists, and intellectuals, such as Nina Collier facilitated a rich exchange of ideas, igniting a dialogue that transcended geographical boundaries. His lectures and conversations resonated deeply, challenging conventional perceptions and fostering a broader appreciation for Indian philosophy, culture, and artistic traditions.
Nina Collier (née Perera) befriended Tagore in Germany in the summer of 1930 and they became fast friends. She would become a lifelong promoter of his work in the United States and upon Tagore's request, she supervised his second 1930 American exhibition, titled Exhibition of Paintings. This ran at the Fifty-Sixth Street Galleries in New York, from November 20th - December 17th 1930 and Nina took full charge of the exhibition, including sorting out the gallery space and paying for rent, preparing the exhibition catalogue and publicity. Tagore was having this exhibition as he was trying to raise funds for his University, Visva-Bharti in India, however none of the works sold. Nina spent her savings of $2000 accumulated from two years of teaching to host the exhibition. As a mark of gratitude he asked her to select a number of his works. She chose four (having previously procured two of his ink paintings), and two of the four from this selection are being offered as part of this auction. What makes these works particularly unique is that they are the only known paintings in the United States by Tagore.
During the course of her life, Nina lent these works to various exhibitions around the United States and aboard so they were exhibited regularly. Some of these include the 1953 exhibition of Contemporary Indian Arts and Crafts, sponsored by the Government of India and organised by the Academy of Fine Art, Bombay at the Smithsonian and the 1961 birth centenary celebrations of Tagore, hosted by the Asia Society. A devoted admirer of Tagore, Nina became the President of the Tagore Society of Philadelphia.
Nina graduated with a degree in the History of Art from Bryn Mawr College in 1928, and was working as both an art director at the all girls school, Nightingale-Bamford School and at an architects office as part of the furniture design and stage team. She subsequently enrolled in the department of architecture at Columbia University in 1930. After Tagore's departure, Nina completed her studies at MIT in Boston, married and entered the government service in organising programmes for artists, musicians and actors. She later served in the inter-American affairs department for artistic programmes and eventually founded a movement of Music for children called 'Young Audiences Ltd.'
Bonhams extends their gratitude to Mr Richard Gilreath at the Smithsonian Institution Archives for his assistance with cataloguing this work.