Hanging Clouds near Bara Bazar, Shillong

Born in Sivasagar in Assam, Hemanta Misra earned his first artistic spurs as a painter of mesmerising landscapes of his beautiful home state. This watercolour comes from a time when Shillong, and not Guwahati, was the capital of Assam. Titled Hanging Clouds near Bara Bazar, Shillong, it is an ode to the city that experiences heavy rainfall for nearly a third of the year. Executed in academic realist style, the work shows this self-taught artist’s mastery in capturing the details of a busy city centre, over which hangs the mass of white-grey clouds, the wispiness of the latter perfectly balancing the colours below.