About Gaganendranath Tagore

Born in 1867 in the Tagore family in Kolkata, Gaganendranath Tagore was a self-taught artist. His exposure to art practices all around the world helped him to create a distinctly original style of painting. His open attitude towards experimenting with Japanese and modern western art, from futurism and cubism to the ideas of German expressionism and his caricature albums reflecting social and religious hypocrisies of his times, mark him as a pioneer in this field.

The artistic career of Gaganendranath Tagore was marked by bold originality of conception and execution of many themes in different styles. However he is best known for his political cartoons and social satires on Westernised Bengalis. With his proficiency in the European water-colour techniques he was probably the first artist to explore with French style of painting in India. He also came under the influence of experimentalist art prevalent in Europe at that time and was allured towards geometric compositions. His imagination was fired by anything Indian or Oriental, probably more so, because of his assertive nationalism. He was, like the other Tagore, also versatile in his artistic interests, and involved himself in theatre, reading and photography. In 1907, he founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art along with his brother Abanindranath Tagore. The largest number of paintings of Gaganendranath now forms part of Rabindra-Bharti Society’s collection at Jorasanko, Kolkata. Gaganendranath Tagore died in 1938.