Bagyi Aung Soe, “Dr Nandalal Bose”, in From Tradition to Modernity, Yangon: Khin May Si Sapay, 1978, 95-116.1
95 In the middle of the 19th century, Indian society and intellectual outlook were immensely influenced by the West. It had a great impact on our knowledge of art. The life of artists was undergoing gradual but significant changes. Meanwhile, they were experiencing a period of artistic reformation led by E.B. Havell and Abanindranath. An artist who skillfully created a large body of meaningful and outstanding works during that time was Nandalal Bose. It is true that an important phase of Indian art ended with his death on 16th April 1966. 96 Nandalal Bose was born in a small village called Kharagpur in Munger, Bihar state on 3rd December, 1882. His father, Purnachandra Bose was a forest officer in Darbhanga. His mother, Kshetramonidevi was keen on making crafts, sewing and knitting. But Nandalal lost his mother when he was eight. He was interested in mud sculptors and potters. He passed his days studying pot-making and colour-blending from a country potter. He went to school in Kharagpur in Munger. In 1903, he passed the entrance exam in Kusuram [?] Bose School in Kolkata and attended at a central basic educational school. But the guardians found him showing little interest in basic education and planned for him to attend medical college. Again, Nandalal showed little interest there and they thus sent him to study commerce at President College. At last, they had to accept that he had no interest in such education at all. 97 What he always wanted to be was an artist. He had a passion for nothing other than the life of an artist. One day, he went to a government art school with the help of one of his acquaintances. Harvell was the principal and Abanindranath Tagore was the assistant principal there. He talked to Abanindranath about his hobby. He showed him his pictures of Madonna by Raphael. Abanindranath was greatly pleased with his works and pictures of Greek sculptures. Then Nandalal was granted permission to attend that school in August
1
This translation only conveys the gist of the article, not all the nuances. Given that Aung Soe could not have been in Śāntiniketan in 1947, as claimed on the second last page, the article in Burmese was at least in parts translated from an unidentified source; it was not an entirely original article by Aung Soe.
Bagyi Aung Soe, “Dr Nandalal Bose”, in From Tradition to Modernity, Yangon: Khin May Si Sapay, 1978, 95-116.
1
AungSoeillustrations.org