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      Abanindranath Tagore, the father of modern art in India, was born at Jorasanko on 7th August 1871. He was the son of artist Gunendranath Tagore. Abanindranath was educated at the Sanskrit College, Kolkata.

      Though he received a thorough grounding in Sanskrit, he had a strong love for painting from his very childhood. Abanindranath quickly matured as a painter being greatly influenced by the fine decorative lines and vibrant colors of Mughal and Pahari miniatures paintings. During the 1880s he studied under Olinto Gilhardi and Charles Palmer. Pursuing his increasing interest in Japanese painting, he got trained under Yokoyama Taikan who tutored him on Japanese brushwork. Having been trained under artistes of great repute, Abanindranath’s works had a great delicacy of feeling, unity of concept, a highly sensitive range of color, tone, texture and poetic depth. He was soon regarded as the father of India's modern art. In 1905, he laid the foundation for the Bengal school of Indian painting and led the revivalist movement in Bengal in the field of modern Indian paintings with the help of a band of disciples – Nanda Lal Bose, A. K. Haldar, K. N. Majumdar, S. N. Gupta and a host of others. Between 1905 and1915, Tagore taught at the Calcutta Government College of Art where he joined as the vice-principal. Abanindranath's talent with the brush and his unorthodox teaching methods earned him repute at the Government College of Art. Apart from his early connection as Vice-Principal, Government College of Art, Abanindranath founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art in 1907. He was also the Bageswari Professor of Fine Arts, Calcutta University (1923-24). Abanindranath died in 1951. His paintings were exhibited in London and Paris in 1913. After his death, his works were declared as National Art Treasures. The largest number of paintings by Abanindranath form a part of Rabindra Bharati’s collection at Jorasanko, Kolkata.

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      Nandalal Bose was born in 1883. He was an eminent artist and founder of new school of painting, which is in part a revival of the ancient Indian art. It represented the spirit of New India and was truly nationalistic, employing a synthesis of Oriental and occidental techniques.

He also founded the Indian Society of Oriental Arts. Nandalal Bose joined Shantiniketan in 1914 and became the Director of Kala Bhawan i.e. the Art Department of Vishvabharati University in 1919. A well traveled man, he was truly the father of modern painting in India. Bose died in 1966.

Nandalal Bose's Painting

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      Jamini Roy was born in 1887 in a village of Bankura district in West Bengal. The village was to a great extent rich with folk art tradition. When he was sixteen he was sent to study at the Government School of Art in Calcutta from where he received his diploma in Fine Arts.

      He was taught to paint in the prevailing academic tradition, drawing classical nudes and painting in oils. However, he rejected these conventions to cultivate a personal painting style inspired largely by traditional Indian folk and village arts, particularly those of his native Bengal. He was most influenced by the Kalighat Pat, with its bold sweeping brush-strokes. 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 point of departure. Roy utilized his skill and intelligence to create a body of work that resonates with the history of modern India. His underlying quest was threefold to capture the essence of simplicity embodied in the life of the common folk; to make art accessible to a wider section of people; and to give Indian art its own identity. Roy's pictures became very popular during the 1940s and clientele included both the Bengalee middle class and European community. His work has been exhibited extensively in international exhibitions. In 1946, his work was exhibited in London and in 1953 in New York. He was awarded the Padma Bhusan in 1955. He died in 1972 in Kolkata, where he had lived all his life.

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      Born in 1918 in Dhaka (now capital of Bangladesh), Paritosh Sen had inclination towards creative skill and it was this inclination that made him to join the Madras Art School after his formal school education.

      After finishing his training in Madras Art College, he went to Paris to learn about the history of painting. His sojourn was a very successful one as he met and interacted with the world famous painters. On his return to India, after a brief spell there in the Netarhat school, he joined as a professor of design and layout in a printing technogy school. In 1960, Sen was appointed by the French Government to design Bengali typography based on the script of Rabindranath Tagore. He was also invited by the Maryland Institute of Art, where he was appointed as an Artist-in-Residence. His several trips abroad and to different parts of India had great inpact on him and this impact led to many changes in his style of painting. Sen has created works of outstanding artistry. He lives in Calcutta.

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      Bikash Bhattacharya was born in Calcutta in 1940. After graduating from Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship in 1963, he joined as a faculty at Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship in 1968.

      From 1973 to 1982, he taught at the Government College of Art & Craft. Bhattacharya is a highly skilled portrait painter. He remains much engrossed in female beauty and his deep appreciation of female beauty gains much prominence in many of his portraits. While making portraits of female beauty, he examines the various possibilities of oil as a medium, to satisfy his intended target of representing the exact quality of clothes or the skin tone of a woman in his paintings. The artist in collaboration with writer Samaresh Bose illustrated a fictionalized biography of artist Ram Kinkar Baij. The project was incomplete because of the sudden death of Bose. Besides female beauty, he creates varied characters in his canvases- old men and women and children. Bhattacharya lives in Calcutta.

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