Awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1954, Jamini Roy was an Indian painter par excellence whose paintings are known to have sold for amounts varying from 26 USD to 579,600 USD depending on the size and medium of the paintings. He was also awarded the Viceroy’s Gold Medal in 1934 and Fellow of the Lalit Kala Academy in 1955.
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Roy’s paintings are not only world-renowned and appreciated, but they also happen to be a hot favourite amongst your regular middle-class Bengali households. His art was what people identify with and like to keep around themselves. Jamini Roy’s paintings are famous for their depiction of Santal women. Having started as a portrait painter who wasn’t happy with what he was doing, it is said that in the year 1925, he found his calling in the Kalighat style of art.
In British-ruled India back in 1938, Jamini Roy’s artwork became the first Indian paintings to be displayed on the streets of erstwhile Calcutta, now Kolkata. He aimed to make his art simple to recreate and easily accessible. By mid-1940, middle-class Indians started buying his paintings which was his intention all along, but Europeans in the country also started showing interest in his work and that was a surprise.
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After a while, along with strong influences of the Kalighat style of art, Jamini Roy’s painting started reflecting the terracotta of the Bishnupur temple. In the years that followed, his work found an audience in prestigious art shows held in London and New York. Some of his most prominent works are Ramayana, Dual Cats with one Crayfish, Bride with two companions, Krishna & Balarama, Santal boy with a drum, his Krishna & Radha series, and many more.
His works have been displayed in museums the world over including Victoria and Albert Museum, in London. He was the first Indian painter to be awarded the Fellow of the Lalit Kala Academy in 1955. Archaeological Survey of India included his work in the ‘Nine Masters’ in 1976. The ‘Nine Masters’ are considered art treasures because of their artistic and aesthetic value.
This pic on the left of two Vaishnavas was painted by Jamini Roy and India Post created and issued a stamp of it in 1978. These are commemorative stamps and 50,00,000 pieces were printed.
On his 130th birthday in 2017, Google celebrated with a special Google doodle. Not much is known about his personal life. What made his and his art so famous and dear was their accessibility and how patrons could identify with them. They are probably one of the world’s most copied artworks by artists and enthusiasts worldwide because of their flat structure and broad strokes.
All artwork shared in this post is from WikiCommons.
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