Prosanto Roy

Prosanto Roy’s (1908-1973) oeuvre depicts a transcendental approach, creating mythical architectural manifestations. A modern and contemporary artist,  Roy was instrumental in working and promoting congruent designs in his paintings. 

Bearing an intensely inquisitive mind for art from a young age, Roy was inducted into the Brahmacharya Ashram of Shantiniketan under the guidance of Rabindranath Tagore. As his practice flowered and excellence arrived, his apprenticeship at Jorsanko house was later led by Gaganendranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore. Here, Prosanto Roy was deeply inspired by Gagaendranath’s execution of the Cubist style in his paintings. 

Roy’s depictions consist of varying degrees of gradations with smooth blended tones. With the use of watercolours, he imprints hard-lined delineation, portraying a sense of warm whimsical folklore. Notably, these narratives in his landscapes were like Journey, Chota Nagpur, Out of the woods, Mountainscape, and Pleasure boat. Developing figures that mimic Japanese style, he employed the wash technique in his paintings, with wispy layers that merge impeccably with fragmented geometric impressions.

The theme for his paintings revolved extensively around nature, with sweeping landscapes expressed in vivid delicate colours or muted shades of black and grey. The viewers can conjure endless possibilities and imaginations through Roy’s paintings. He also depicted people and scenes from old Calcutta. During the world war, the ghastly event of the Hiroshima bombing provoked Roy to undertake what is well known as the Hiroshima series. 

In 1952, he was appointed as the curator of the Kala Bhawan, Shantiniketan, which he continued to serve until his death. Roy was credited for his extremely distinguished method of rendition. He held various solo exhibitions of his artworks spread in different parts of India from Lucknow, New Delhi, Gwalior, and then Bombay. In 1971, his last exhibition was conducted in Calcutta.