Jamini Roy

What links here Related changes Page information
Created by 207.6.225.95
Last edited February 7, 2026

Template:More citations needed Template:Use British English

Template:Infobox artist Jamini Roy (11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972) was an Indian painter. He was honoured by the Government of India the award of Padma Bhushan in 1954.[1] He remains one of the most famous pupils of Abanindranath Tagore, another praised Indian artist and instructor.[2] Roy's highly simplified, flattened-out style, and reminiscent of European modern art was influenced by the “bazaar” paintings sold at Indian temples as talismans.[3]

Early life and background

Jamini Roy was born on 11 April 1887 into a moderately prosperous Kayastha family of land-owners in Beliatore village of the Bankura district, West Bengal.[4] He was raised in an average middle-class, art loving household which ultimately influenced his future decisions.[5]

When he was sixteen he was sent to study at the Government College of Art, Kolkata.[4] Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of Bengal school was vice-principal at the institution.[6] He was taught to paint in the prevailing academic tradition drawing Classical nudes and painting in oils and in 1908 he received his Diploma in Fine Art.

However, the principal E.B. Havell's influence, and Rabindranath Tagore's decisive lecture brought him to a realization that he needed to draw inspiration, not from Western traditions, but from his own culture, and so he looked to the living folk and tribal art for inspiration.[7] He was most influenced by the Kalighat Pat (Kalighat painting), which was a style of art with bold sweeping brush-strokes.[8] He moved away from his earlier impressionist landscapes and portraits and between 1921 and 1924 began his first period of experimentation with the Santhal dance as his starting point. Jamini Roy had 4 sons and 1 daughter.

Style

File:Boating (6124606361).jpg
Jamini Roy painting - Boating
File:Two cats holding a large prawn (6124606539).jpg
Jamini Roy painting - Two cats holding a large prawn

Roy began his career as a commissioned portrait painter. Somewhat abruptly in the early 1920s, he gave up commissioned portrait painting in an effort to discover his own.[9]

Roy changed style from his academic Western training and featured a new style based on Bengali folk traditions.[10][11]

Roy is also described as an art machine because he produced 20,000 paintings in his lifetime which is about 10 paintings daily but made sure his artistic aims remained the same.[12] He always targeted to the ordinary middle class as the upholder of art however he was thronged by the rich. Keeping his respect to the middle class reflected on his critical views; he believed that ordinary people were more important than governments because they were the voice of his art.[13]

His underlying quest was threefold: to capture the essence of simplicity embodied in the life of the folk people; to make art accessible to a wider section of people; and to give Indian art its own identity.

He also used indigenous materials like lamp black, organic tempera, earth and mineral pigments to paint.[14]

Jamini Roy's paintings were put on exhibition for the first time in the British India Street of Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1938. During the 1940s, his popularity touched new highs, with the Bengali middle class and the European community becoming his main clientele. In 1946, his work was exhibited in London and in 1953, in New York. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1954. His work has been exhibited extensively in international exhibitions and can be found in many private and public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He spent most of his life living and working in Calcutta. Initially he experimented with Kalighat paintings but found that it has ceased to be strictly a "patua" and went to learn from village patuas. Consequently, his techniques as well as subject matter was influenced by traditional art of Bengal. He preferred himself to be called a patua. Jamini Roy died in 1972. He was survived by four sons and a daughter. Currently his successors (daughters-in-law and grand children and their children) stay at the home he had built in Ballygunge Place, Kolkata. His works can be found in various museums and galleries across the globe.

Awards

In 1934, he received a Viceroy's gold medal in an all India exhibition for one of his work. In 1954 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India, the third highest award a civilian can be given.[15] In 1956, he was made the second Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi, the highest honour in the fine arts conferred by the Lalit Kala Akademi, India's National Academy of Art, Government of India.[16]

Critical views

In 1929 while inaugurating Roy's exhibition sponsored by Mukul Dey at Calcutta, the then Statesman Editor Sir Alfred Watson said:

Template:Cquote

File:Untitled (Cat) by Jamini Roy.jpg
Untitled, c. 1920s-50s, Tempera on boxboard, DAG Museums

Key works

File:Jamini Roy - Mother and Child - Google Art Project.jpg
Jamini Roy – Mother and Child, oil on canvas, mid 1920. National Gallery of Modern Art collection
  • "Ramayana", 1946, Spread across 17 canvases (106 × 76 cm, each) Roy's Ramayana is considered to be his magnum opus. Patronized by Sarada Charan Das, Roy created this masterpiece series in Kalighat pata style with natural colors, using earth, chalk powder and vegetable colors instead of dyes. Later Roy also created individual replicas capturing various moments from the entire series. Some of these paintings have been preserved in the National Art Gallery of India and are also in display in the Victoria Memorial Hall. His story of Ramayana begins with sage Valmiki and completes the circle back to his hermitage after Sita's aagnipariksha. All his 17 canvases are frequently characterized by decorative flowers, landscape, birds and animals typical of the Bengal School of Art. His lines are simple, bold and roundish initially derived from clay images but they lead to complex moments rendering subtle yet powerful emotions. Jamini Roy's complete “Ramayana” is on display today at Sarada Charan Das' residence "Rossogolla Bhavan" in Kolkata along with 8 other large-scale originals. The Das residence today harbors the largest private collection of Jamini Roy paintings with 25 of the master's originals.[17]
  • "Bride and two Companions", 1952, tempera on card, 75 x 39 cm. Coates described the painting: "Note the magnificent indigo of Bengal, and how the palms of the bride's hands are smeared with red sandalpaste. Jamini Roy's choice of colours looks at first sight purely decorative. In fact, nearly every thing in his pictures has a reason and a meaning."[18] It is very flat and heavily outlined. Roy portrays a traditional woman without the artificial beauty and the mythological background portraying the folk-art inspiration that has always been present since his beginnings.[19]
  • "Dual Cats with one Crayfish", 1968, tempera on card, 55.5 x 44 cm. Coates wrote: "Yet another new style, colours reduced in number and very restrained, an almost overwhelming sense of formality."[18]

Death and legacy

Jamini Roy died on 24 April 1972. In 1976, the Archaeological Survey of India, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India declared his works among the "Nine Masters" whose work, to be henceforth considered "to be art treasures, having regard to their artistic and aesthetic value".[20]

On 11 April 2017, Google India dedicated a Google Doodle to celebrate Roy on his 130th birthday.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jamini Roy. Jamini Roy. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  2. ↑ Bishnupur gets a Jamini Roy facelift, Chatterjee, Abhijeet. The Telegraph Online(November 11, 2018). Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  3. ↑ After Independence, the Search for Self, Genocchio, Benjamin. The New York Times(November 13, 2009). Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jamini Roy (1887–1972) Biography. Indian Art Circle. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  5. ↑ Jamini Roy Biography - Paintings & Artworks, Life History & Achievements.
  6. ↑ Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951). Visva-Bharati(September 24, 2023). Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  7. ↑ Folk hero of Indian art. The Indian Express(December 16, 1990). Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  8. ↑ Jamini Roy: Blender of influences, Menon, Anjolie. India Today(August 21, 2021). Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  9. ↑ Jamini Roy - Journey To The Roots{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. NGMA(2013)
  10. ↑ Jamini Roy: Life, Painting Style & Famous Works. Prinseps(2019-02-16). Retrieved 2025-07-28.
  11. ↑ Jamini Roy: A painter's quest for an Indian identity. www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
  12. ↑ Jamini Roy: The 'national artist' who produced timeless works of art, Banerjie, Indranil. India Today(May 31, 1987). Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  13. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
  14. ↑ Painting(6 March 2024).
  15. ↑ Padma Awards. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India(2015). Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  16. ↑ List of Fellows. Lalit Kala Akademi. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  17. ↑ K.C. Das. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Bonhams auction Template:Webarchive.
  19. ↑ Jamini Roy | artnet. www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  20. ↑ Nine Masters Template:Webarchive [[Government Museum an d Art Gallery, Chandigarh]]. "Nine Masters: Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy and Nandalal Bose, Ravi Varma, Gaganendranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Sailoz Mookherjea and Nicholas Roerich."
  21. ↑ Jamini Roy's 130th Birthday. Google Doodles. Retrieved 2022-04-10.

Bibliography

  • Jamini Roy{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Indian Society of Oriental Art(1944)
  • Six Indian painters: Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil, M.F. Husain, K.G. Subramanyan, Bhupen Khakhar{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Tate Gallery Publications Dept.(1982). ISBN 978-0-905005-58-4
  • Jamini Roy in the Context of Indian Folk Sensibility and His Impact on Modern Art: Seminar Papers{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Lalit Kala Akademi(1992)
  • Jamini Roy: A Painter Who Revisited the Roots. Niyogi Books. 2022. ISBN 978-93-91125-36-3.

Template:Commons category

Template:PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 1954–59 Template:Fellows of the Lalit Kala Akademi Template:Authority control Template:West Bengal

Retrieved from "https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Jamini_Roy&oldid=547227"
Discover more