The members of the great Tagore family of Bengal were among the pioneers of the Indian Renaissance at the turnof this country. Abanindranath and Gaganendranath, nephews of the great poet Tagore, gave expression to the new awakening in the field of painting. Ganendranath was the lesser known of the two but his work was by no means second-rate. Born on September 18, 1867, Gaganendranath took to painting rather late in life. He did not follow the set pattern of the new Bengal School. He boke new ground and took some of his ideas from the Cubist and Furtherist Schools then in vogue in Europe. But these alien influences did not sweep him off his feet.

He remained an Indian painter, first and last. Although his productions owed much to foreign trends there was nothing hybrid about them as they were rooted in true Indian traditions. All through them runs the transforming mark of his orientality. "The homely simplicity of his Chaitanya series of paintings, the beauty and breadth of his landscape, the effortless suggestiveness of his pertraits" these are the distinctive paintings of a great artist. Gaganendranath has been called a painter of the modrn city.

In this, too, his contribution has been unique because most of our artists do not feel quite at home in themes with an urban background. When he paints the evening sky, one recognise the Calcutta sky, with its smoke and dust. The two women leaning on the parampet wall are confident and self-concious, not coy and retiring village brides. His Durga Ouja Immersion Procession is a spirit representation of a real city street. Gaganendranath carved out a niche for himself in another field usually avoided by great painters, that of the cartoonist. The most important of his cartoons date from 1915 to 1922.

There were highly expressive and reflected "all the greverence and irony of the revolutionary". Cartoons like the "the stream" series and "Peace restored in Punjab" (on the Jalianwala Baugh tragedy) were distinguished by the artist's unfailing courage and directness and left a telling impression on the contemporary viewer. Gaganendranath was stricken with facial paralysts about the year 1930, and passed away in 1938. But his memory lives on in his paintings and sketches.

Fifty years after his great works began to appear, he still regarded as the most authentic experimentalist of our times. In fact, his talent is being increasingly appreciated with the passing years, a sure indication that his was not the flowering of a transient genius. Artists in India have been celebrating the centenary year of this departed master.

The Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department is hapy to honour Gaganendranath's great name by issuing a commemorative stamp with his self-portrait, on the eve of the 101st anniversary of his birth.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India