The mystery and magic of Tagore's paintings and sketches

(From left) Self portrait, Poet's manuscript, A lady

Rokeya Sultana explains that Bengal School had delineation of figures, forms, landscapes and other items taken from actual life and then presented in a simplified and personalised form. The paintings of Sher Gil and Rabi Barma were clear and relatively straightforward depictions. In Tagore's life, by then, harshness and sufferings had taken a stand. He was full of suffering, pain that he had witnessed in the lives of those around him. As for his own inner turmoil, he did not allow them to take a vital expression.

In his work were the elements of loneliness that worked deep within him and which he did not want others to be aware of. He had lost a number of relatives and friends, whom he cared for deeply.

Also, Rokeya says, that Tagore was taken up with trying to comprehend the mystery of human existence as well as well as pantheism. She stresses on the fact that he tried to be as close to nature as possible in his daily existence, marveling at the rainfall, sunrise, sunset and summer. He found subtlety and magnificence even in the mundane existence of the subcontinental life. He lived extensively on the boat in the different rivers of Bengal. All this was captured in his paintings, Rokeya elaborates.

Rokeya explains, 'What Tagore did were paintings and sketches of characters similar to the manner of German Expressionists. They were portraits of his friends and family and they almost burst with anger or a flood of human beauty. One cannot distinguish the faces as portraits. The was always an element of mysterious attraction in all his portraits. Sometimes he had distorted the facial features and at times the limbs according to his whims.' Rokeya says that this was evident in the portraits of Moitri Devi, his friends, 'Jhoru' his servants and his own self portraits.'

Dwelling on Tagore's landscapes, we find the true depth of analyses and presentation of the study of the different seasons in Bengal, as well as the surrounding beauty of the rain, tress, blossoms birds and grass. These elements find ample depiction in his poetry and of which the paintings were merely a more mature extensions, says Rokeya. This too was not realistic but in the Expressionistic manner, which was dear to his heart. The paintings, Rokeya adds, were done layer upon layer, with orange or yellow peeping through the amber or black. Some of these paintings even haunt one, Rokeya stresses, if one has been an apt student of Tagore's paintings.

Tagore most often used Chinese ink in his work as he was restless during the period of his painting and sketching. Working with the sharp end of his pen, he then took out some of the layers of the earthy colours from below his paintings. His paintings originated, as one knows, from doodling and corrections along the margins of his written work. He gave strange exotic names to some of the non-existing, imaginary animals that crept into his sketches. Such was his brilliant extent of his imagination.