2014.516: Untitled (Banyan Trees, Palm Tree, and Altar)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.516

People

Nandalal Bose, Indian (1882 - 1966)

Title

Untitled (Banyan Trees, Palm Tree, and Altar)

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1960

Places

Creation Place: South Asia, India, West Bengal

Culture

Indian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/352294

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black ink with traces of charcoal and incidental red chalk on Asian paper

Dimensions

38.7 x 28 cm (15 1/4 x 11 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: signed: lower right: black ink, Bengali: ১.৮ ৬০ (1.8 60) [1 August 1960], signature of the artist
• seal: lower right: rectangular, red, intaglio seal of the artist
• inscription: lower right: graphite, Bengali: ১ ২০ (২৮?) ৬০ (1 20 [28?] 60) [January 20 (28?) 1960]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Nandalal Bose, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, (-1966), by inheritance; to his son, Biswarup Bose, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India (1966-1969 to 1971), gift; to Supratik Bose, grandson of Nandalal Bose, Cambridge, MA, (between 1969 and 1971-2014), gift; to the Harvard Art Museums.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mary K. Eliot and Supratik Bose in honor of Sonya Rhie Quintanilla

Accession Year

2014

Object Number

2014.516

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

In this monochromatic ink drawing, the trunk of a palm tree shoots upward through the mass of branches produced by a neighboring banyan tree. The scene recalls a well-known Bengali poem by Rabindranath Tagore, who founded the school where Nandalal Bose spent much of his life as a teacher and an artist: “One-legged palm tree/topping the other trees/peering at the sky […]”. A seated figure at a modest altar seen through the tree trunks lends the scene a sense of human scale.

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 2590 South and Southeast Asia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/26/2016 - 11/02/2016; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/31/2022 - 04/17/2023

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