Untitled

Ganesh Pyne was a skilled draughtsman who worked at the country’s first animation studio, the Mandar Studios in Calcutta, soon after college. There, he learnt to distort and exaggerate facial features under a visiting Disney animator, Claire Weeks—a skill that he would put to good effect in his works, creating uncanny images of common people and everyday situations. In this Untitled work, the boy gives a bold and disturbing look to the viewer. Given his attire and headgear, he appears to be a royal personage, but the skull looming around his being hints at a tragedy.