Mother and Child

Jamini Roy trained at the Government School of Art, Calcutta (now Kolkata) where he acquired the skills of European Academic realism. As a consequence of the colonial experience he rejected European Academic Realism and evolved a distinctly personal and unique style motivated by an urge to define a cultural identity. His artistic impulses were rooted in his growing years in Beliatore village in the Birbhum district of undivided Bengal. He drew inspiration from the ‘pat’ paintings and temple terracotta relief panels of Bengal and towards the latter half of the ‘20’s he began to develop his own visual language. His simplification of form had however begun much earlier and Roy started to use village folk, particularly Santhal women as his subjects.

In this painting the first hints of stylization can be observed, as the mother tenderly guides her child. The sweeping angular and rounded lines add to the simplification of the figures.