Untitled

Known for his watercolour images on silk, Maniklal Banerjee’s recognition was mostly confined within the classrooms of the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta, where he taught from 1939 to ’77. He was a fourth generation practitioner of Abanindranath Tagore’s neo-Bengal style of painting, having studied under Satyendranath Banerjee, who in turn was taught at Kala Bhavana by Nandalal Bose. In this captivating Untitled work, a woman prays early in the morning on the ghats by the banks of Hooghly, beside an old temple. The sky is cloudy and at the other bank rise buildings of the city hazily.