Jamini Roy was one of the most significant and influential painters of the 20th century and a famous pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, who made great contribution to the emergence of modern art. Jamini developed a personal painting style and gave expression to the scenes of everyday life of the people of rural Bengal.
Background
Jamini Roy was born in a middle-class family in 1887 at Beliator village in Bankura district of Bengal. His father Ramataran Roy was an amateur artist who, spent most of his life in his village among the potters. When Jamini was 16 years old, he came to Calcutta and studied at the Government School of Art.
His paintings have different themes of of everyday life of rural Bengal from joys to sorrows. Also he painted scenes of the lives of the aboriginal Santhals, such as 'Santhals engaged in drum-beating' 'Santhal Mother and Child' 'Dancing Santhals' etc.
Education
There Roy painted his works mostly in academic tradition. The young man has achieved success in the field of portrait painting. However, years of apprenticeship were not happy for him. He had to earn his bread by himself, drawing promotional pictures for traders, painting the hundreds of cheap engravings, working in the Workshop for painting of fabrics and in the theatre dressing room. A blank copy of plaster casts, endless lessons and exercises in drawing did not satisfy the artist.
In 1908 he received his Diploma in Fine Art, and became an accomplished painter in oils.
Career
In Joy's twenties he earned his living by executing portraits in academic style. But his spirit of quests led him to many directions. When he was in his mid-thirties, Roy decided to draw in another style different from Western method. "Even today", he said afterwards, "I am least bothered whether my paintings is good or bad, and I feel that it is no concern of mine. My sole desire is to make my paintings look different." Later he realized his desire to have a personal identity and said about it the following words: "It was not possible for me to paint in European way, nor in Chinese or Tibetan.... because I was not in their milieu." With the understanding that he could flourish only in the cultural consciousness of his own tradition, he devoted himself to the study of folk art. The artist was indefatigable. He could repeat himself in countless ways and didn't stop until not reached the amazing purity of line, perfection of form and harmony of colours. He worked hard for about seven years at his north Calcutta residence. The main themes of his paintings became Rama and Krishna, mother and child, Sri Chaitanya and his devout singing companions, the Bauls, and even the Santals, singly or in group dances - he similarly endowed his canvases with the traditionally flowing cultural ethos of rural Bengal. Strength of his paintings is a vividness of expression born of conceptual clarity, and this quality made him so popular with the viewers.
Jamini Roy successfully bridged the gap that developed in the cultures of the traditional rural Bengal and the colonial Calcutta. Jamini Roy provided a broader base to the art of modern India by enriching it with ethnic substances.