Abstract
For Nandalal Bose (1882–1966), the art of landscape was a set of acquired symbols, which he used to challenge conventional artistic practices. An early watercolor, from 1915, shows a distilled vision of the Padma River, where in the winter the water recedes to reveal largest retches of alluvial land. (Fig. 1)Using a charcoal grey pigment, the artist paints the water in one continuous sweep, bisecting the image diagonally. The flat planes on both sides are merely suggested by thewhite of the paper faintly brushed with a translucent wash. The moodis one of controlled calm scarcely broken by a flock of miniscule ducksdeparting from the farther shore. This water-colour was based on an actual visit to the site, but it was by no means a literal record of it.1Inthis composition, nature and abstract construction coexist in a dynamicequilibrium; topographical specificity is balanced by bold formalism. Bose was among the first Indian artists to treat landscape as an independent subject. Traditionally, trees, rocks and sky – no matter how lovingly and luxuriantly portrayed – had been secondary to narrative and dramatic action. Bose’s elevation of landscape to primary status was prompted by a number of personal and historical factors, the most important being his encounter with Japanese art.