Gaganendranath Tagore: Painter and Personality

The earliest examples of Gaganbabu's paintings are in 1907 in the form of postcards sent from Puri to his daughter. These comprise seascapes done with a few quick brush strokes and thin washes of colour. The other possible earliest works are pencil portraits in the manner of Jyotirindranath. In this period also fall the sketches both in pen and ink and in pencil of pundits and kritankars besides his family members. We are told of the incident of the death of his elder son, the shock of which cast a great gloom over the family and in order to provide a congenial diversion kirtans and kathas were arranged, where Gaganbabu made these sketches.  Besides Jeevansmriti, Gaganendranath began illustration began illustrations of Rabindranath's short story, Kabuliwala, Phalguni and some poems from Gitanjali.

The illustrations for Rabindranath's autobiography in Bengali, "Jeevansmriti", published in 1912. Here for the first time we come across some paintings, which definitely derive from the Japanese brush technique. Mention may be made here of the well-known and recorded incident of Okakura's first visit (1902) and his sending of two Japanese artists.  The 'Crow' 'Arrival of Tutor in Rain', 'Abanindranath Tagore Painting while smoking hooka' and 'Portrait study of Mrs. Gaganendranath Tagore' are worthy examples of SUMI-E type ink paintings. .His definite interest in Whistler is however more positively established when we see the slightly later landscapes of night subjects which were significantly titled 'Nocturnes' which had been a favourite theme for Whistler too. In the handling of SUMI-E, Gaganendranath displayed all the skill, all the subtleties that the Japanese expected from a master which is especially conspicuous in the two studies of crows.

This paintings are undated, most probably they were done after the "Jeevansmriti" illustrations, i.e. after 1910. They were all exhibited in the 1914 exhibition of the Calcutta School held in Paris and London. Almost all of them were listed in the catalogue, a very important document, as it is the first listing of the paintings of both Abanindranath and Gaganendranath till that date. Thus it can be safely surmised that none of the Chaitanya paintings date after 1914.

His approach to pictorial composition at this stage can be visualised by taking the example of 'Chaitanya knocking at the Temple door'. Fortunately it exists in several versions including one complete pencil drawing of the whole composition. Because of the infinite space and mysterious shadows these works can be called romantic. The romanticism becomes more pronounced in the late phase. Also now a definite shift in Gaganbabu's attitude is noticeable. He is no more concerned, like in the earlier works with representing the visual impressions of the outer reality. But what now concern him are his own feelings about the outer world and finding suitable and appropriate pictorial equivalents to them. the so-called pilgrim series are done entirely from memory and imagination, unlike the earlier landscapes. they have visionary' element, found in William Blake and Turner.  

In the theatre activities and stage performances of the Bichitra club, Gaganbabu had been fully active as an actor and stage designer. An interest in the 'comic' and 'comedy' as contents of a play and challenging assignments for an actor, would have been immediate inspirational stimulants even for his pictorial satirical depictions. an immediate phase of theatrical development which certainly influenced Gaganendranath Tagore, are the plays written and performances directed by Girish Ghosh (1844-1911) at the turn of the 19th century, the pictorialization of social satire had already been initiated in the visual medium by the Kalighat painters. Birup Bajra (Strange Thunderbolt) and Adbhut Lok (Realm of Absurd): both these sets of caricatures were published in 1917 and are among the earliest such satirical paintings by Gaganendranth.They could easily adopt facets of contemporary life simultaneously with religious icons, but naive folk painters did not realize that the 'style' of their language did not have the expressiveness for the imageries of the 'comic'. 

The first series of cubist paintings by Gaganbabu were reproduced in RUPAM in 1922, along with the article by Stella Kramrisch which are definitely referred to as cubist by the author who titled her article significantly as 'An Indian Cubist'. He shared the fascination for the space-defining characteristic of interpenetrating planes. The difference is that he is basically interested in 'light' and not 'volume'. that is to say, the contriving of receding and protruding planes of negative and positive value, in such a way that they establish a relationship between light and space. another comparison once again points out to the kinship with Feninger rather than Braque. Feninger's painting was done in 1913 and there is a possibility that Gaganendranath knew his work since he probably also had come across his caricatures which is suggested by comparing Feninger's Die Morgen-Zeitung with a similar painting of Gaganendranath.