Rare Jamini Roy painting put up for sale by great grandson

A rare unpublished painting done 70 years ago by Jamini Roy, one of the celebrated modern Indian artist, is now put up for sale his great grandson.

The 2.5 ft x 3.5 ft water colour on paper done in the traditional West Bengal folk art style Patua and depicting Lord Krishna and gopis was gifted by Roy to his cousin around 1908, according to his great grandson.

"Jamini Roy was very fond of my great grandfather Provash Chandra Roy (my great grandfather) and considered him a venerable personality of his family. Roy gifted the painting to him on one of his birthdays," Subhra Ray,an additional private secretary to the Minister for Railways told PTI.

Ray says due to certain compulsions and his inability to protect the artwork from the vagaries of nature he wants to sell the painting and is scouting for suitable buyers.

"The work has been lying with our family in our ancestral home for many years in Beliatore, Bankura in West Bengal where the great painter was born," says Ray.

Born in 1887 Jamini Roy who received a Padma Bhushan in 1955, began his formal training in art at the Government School of Art in Kolkata in 1903.

Roy began his career by painting in the Post- Impressionist genre of landscapes and portraits. However, by 1925, Roy abandoned the canvas and began experimenting on indigenous materials - lime coated surfaces made of cloth, wood and mats and also began using earth and vegetable hues.

The 1930s witnessed an upsurge in the artist's career that spanned well into the 60s. Roy held several one-man exhibitions and numerous group shows. His works can be found in several private and public collections, institutions and museums all over the world, including the Lalit Kala Academy in Delhi and museums in Germany and the US.