Jamini Roy

1887

Born in Beliatore village in West Bengal’s Bankura district.

1919

Artists Jamini Roy, Hemen Mazumdar, J. C. Seal, B. C. Law and Atul Bose found the Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta.

Early 1920s

Is inspired by Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement. Reads Rabindranath Tagore’s Tapoban, an essay on the restitution of rural heritage. Moves away from his impressionistic style of landscapes and portraits to begin experimenting along the lines of popular Kalighat pat paintings.

1930s

Makes a complete switch to indigenous materials to paint on woven mats, cloth and wood coated with lime. Begins to paint scenes from tribal Santhal life. Also paints scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

1934

Receives the Viceroy’s Medal in an all-India exhibition for his painting Mother Helping the Child to Cross the Pond.

1938

His folk-style works are exhibited for the first time in Calcutta’s British Indian Street, and in the next decade his works achieve great heights of popularity.

1940s

Starts painting scenes from Christ’s life. His works are shown abroad, including London.

1944

Indian Society of Oriental Art publishes his biography, written by John Conran Irwin and Bishnu Dey.

1946

Creates his magnum Ramayana series for Sarada Charan Das consisting of seventeen canvases.

1947-48

Participates in ‘The Arts of India and Pakistan’ exhibition at Burlington House, London.

1950s

His popularity continues to rise with the middle-class; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, collects his works.

1952

Art collector Austin Coates remarks that ‘nearly everything in his pictures has a reason and a meaning’ about the painting Bride and Two Companions painted in this year.

1953

Is exhibited in New York.

1955

Is conferred the Padma Bhushan by Government of India.

1956

Is elected the first fellow by the national Lalit Kala Akademi.

1968

Austin Coates says about Dual Cats With One Crayfish painted in this year, ‘Yet another new style, colours reduced in number and very restrained, an almost overwhelming sense of formality’; cats were a favourite subject for Roy.

1972

Debabrata Roy’s documentary film, Portrait of a Painter, dedicated to Jamini Roy’s extraordinary practice, was produced by the Films Division in 1989 and is one of the finest records of the artist’s career consisting of material filmed before the artist’s death in 1972. Featured in the film is a segment where he is seen working on this painting in his Calcutta studio. Passes away in Calcutta on 24 April; The Times, in its obituary, notes: ‘His studio was a place of pilgrimage for all interested in the artistic heritage of Bengal and in his own delightful person he typified a generation and a culture.'

1976

Government of India declares Jamini Roy, Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose ‘National Treasures’, whose works cannot be exported.

1978

A postage stamp featuring Jamini Roy’s work is released by India Post Office; later, more postage stamps featuring his work continue to be released.

2011-12

‘The Body Unbound’ at Rubin Museum of Art, New York, includes his works.

2015

‘Jamini Roy. From Tradition to Modernity. The Kumar Collection’ is shown at Museo delle Culture di Lugano, Switzerland.

2017

The artist’s birth anniversary is celebrated with a Google Doodle.