Morning Sonata

There’s a reason why Nandalal Bose—whom Indra Dugar had grown close to over the years though he did not officially study at Santiniketan—did not approve of his protégé painting in mediums other than watercolour. That’s because Dugar’s strength lay in the delicate landscapes he executed in watercolours, of which Morning Sonata is a perfect example. This autumn snapshot, evidently of the Himalayas, shows a bleached and bare-branched tree, the temperate colour of its bark in consonance with the pale environment, of which the highlight is one of the mighty peaks of the mountain range in the background.