Abanindranath Tagore

Abanindranath Tagore (born August 7, 1871, Jorasanko, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died December 5, 1951, Calcutta) was a celebrated Indian artist who painted the iconic artwork Bharat Mata and spearheaded the Bengal School of Art movement. Tagore, a member of the prominent Bengali family to which poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore also belonged, is regarded as a foundational figure in modern Indian art and is credited with reviving the Mughal and Rajput styles of painting.

The Tagore family

Abanindranath Tagore was born to Gunendranath Tagore and Saudamini Devi in Jorasanko, the ancestral family home, in a neighborhood in north Calcutta (now Kolkata) in undivided Bengal. The Tagores, who were wealthy landowners, are known for their contributions to the arts and their influence on Bengali culture. The family fortunes were established by Dwarakanath Tagore, who formed Carr, Tagore and Company, the first commercial venture of equal Indian and British ownership. Thereafter, the Tagores flourished during the Bengal Renaissance, a period of cultural and intellectual change that their creative endeavors helped to shape. The artistically inclined Tagores included Abanindranath’s father, Gunendranath Tagore, and elder brother Gaganendranath Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore, the family’s creative apotheosis who wrote, painted, and composed music, was Abanindranath’s uncle and 10 years his senior. He was addressed as “Robika” by the younger Tagore, and the two shared a warm equation as well as several similarities. Both men failed to shine at school—Rabindranath Tagore had dropped out of St. Xavier’s College, and Abanindranath Tagore attended three institutions, including St. Xavier’s, without graduating from any. Both Tagores had artistic talent in common, and Rabindranath greatly admired Abanindranath’s achievements as a painter, once saying:

It is this man who has brought about a new epoch in the world of art. He has changed the country’s taste in art. When the entire country was confined, it was Aban who ushered in a change of air.

Early years as an artist

Abanindranath Tagore began his training as an artist in 1890 after spending some days studying English at St. Xavier’s. He studied under two European artists—pastels with O. Ghilardi and oil painting with Charles Palmer. He also began to develop his skills in portraiture during this early period, painting in the Western conventions that he had learned from both tutors. It was not until Tagore turned to Indigenous traditions and themes of painting—he created a collection of works titled Radha Krishna Leela (“Radha and Krishna’s Play”) in 1894–96—that he blossomed creatively.

Tagore served as vice principal of the Government School of Art from 1905–15 under principal E.B. Havell, who significantly influenced Tagore’s championing of Indian art forms. His style was also informed by a close association with the Japanese artists Okakura Kakuzō and Yokoyama Taikan, whom he met in the early 1900s. Tagore’s identity as a painter evolved from a confluence of cultures, amalgamating Western techniques and Indian forms with Japanese sensibilities.

Bharat Mata

In 1905 Tagore painted Bharat Mata, which became emblematic of Indian anti-colonial resistance and his most iconic work. Bharat Mata depicts India as a four-armed goddess clad in an orange sari. It is a visual rendering of a concept—the country as a divinity—first outlined in Anandamath (1882; “The Abbey of Bliss”), a patriotic novel by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Tagore created the painting during the Swadeshi Movement, a mass collective action based on the rejection of British goods in favor of Indigenous products and services. Bengal, which had recently been partitioned by British authorities, was the epicenter of the movement, and Tagore originally titled the painting Banga Mata (“Banga” meaning Bengal). It was retitled Bharat Mata (“Bharat” is an ancient name for India) on the advice of teacher and social activist Sister Nivedita and became an articulation of nationalist sentiments through the Indian Independence Movement.

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Bengal School of Art

Tagore continued to integrate swadeshi (“of one’s own country”) principles in his art, drawing themes from Indian history, literature, and mythology and fusing them with the traditions of Mughal and Rajput paintings. His famous artworks include Passing of Shah Jahan, Meghdut, and Asoka’s Queen. He was also inspired by episodes from The Thousand and One Nights. As vice principal of the Government Art College, Tagore taught some of India’s most distinguished artists of the modern period, among them Jamini Roy and Nandalal Bose. Tagore’s tutelage and achievements facilitated the emergence of the Bengal School of Art, a creative movement founded on Indigenous artistic conventions and rejection of colonial styles. He also helped found the Indian Society of Oriental Art in 1907 to propagate Indian artistic ideals and accomplishments.

Like so many of the Tagores, Abanindranath Tagore was a polymath. He was an accomplished writer, producing essays on art theory as well as fiction. His best-known literary works include the children’s novel Khirer Putul (1896; Bengali: khir—a milk-based dessert, putul—doll), Raj Kahini (1909; “Tales of Kings”), a collection of short stories about Rajput martial prowess and courage, and the autobiographical Apon Katha (“My Story”), a series of reminiscences published individually between 1927–38 and as a book in 1946.