Untitled (Chitrangada series)

Ramendranath Chakravorty was trained in etching, aquatint and drypoint from the famous printmaker Muirhead Bone, known for his work as a war artist in both the First and the Second World Wars. In 1943, he became the Principal at the Government School of Art, Calcutta and introduced graphic art into the curriculum of the school. Chakravorty’s prints display a confluence of artistic traditions—from the Santiniketan School, especially the woodcut prints of Nandalal Bose, and European idioms like pointillism and Impressionism. In this coloured linocut, we see a scene from the rehearsal of Rabindranath Tagore’s play ‘Chitrangada’ in the New Empire Theatre, where the play was first staged in 1936. Behind the performers, a group of people can be seen watching the performance.