A surprising find was made in Kolkata when a 44-foot-long handscroll painted in the Japanese manner nearly a century ago by famed Indian blind artist Benodebehari Mukherjee reappeared and made its premiere there.
Mukherjee, who was born in 1904, was severely myopic in one eye and blind in the other. At the age of 53, he lost all vision.
Despite this, according to the BBC, he left a lasting impression as a painter, sculpture, and muralist and rose to become a key figure in 20th-century Indian modern art.
Every aspect of the scroll
The artist’s longest scroll to date, this intriguing handscroll with the title “Scenes from Santiniketan” is only six inches across.
It will travel to Santiniketan in July, the esteemed university town established a century ago by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, where Mukherjee himself had studied and later taught.
The scroll, which passed through several hands before arriving in Kolkata, is now proudly on display, providing a look into Mukherjee’s artistic perspective and the Santiniketan surroundings.
Mukherjee, who is 20 years old, expertly painted this intriguing scroll with ink and watercolours on painstakingly constructed sheets of paper.
The scroll’s opening frame depicts a person sitting beneath a tree who is thought to be the artist himself and leads viewers on a tour of the enchanted Santiniketan.
An intriguing journey, showing a transit through time and space, unfolds as one walks from right to left down the scroll. With the colours shifting from black ink to hints of green that reflect the changing seasons, Mukherjee’s deft brushstrokes immerse the observer in a forest of sal trees.
With the addition of 22 human figures, 22 livestock, three hens, one dog, and one bird, the scroll comes to life. Mukherjee expertly captures the immensity of the land and sky by using long stretches of emptiness.
According to renowned art historian Siva Kumar, one can perceive the artist’s seclusion and a subtly expressed sense of isolation within the scroll, which depicts a stage of his existence without self-pity or bitterness.
Mukherjee’s longest-known piece up before this amazing discovery was a picture of the khoai, a laterite soil landscape near Santiniketan, that was slightly over 10 feet long.
