Portrait of Brahmin

N. R. Sardesai’s dreamy watercolour paintings originated in his academic training, and his landscapes and portraits formed a visual document of the region then known as the Bombay Presidency. He paints here a gentleman—who most likely hails from Maharashtra—in his trademark academic realism style. Though the figure seems ordinary, the artist gives him a remarkable assuredness, a demeanour that reveals his wisdom through the stark white hair, the soft features, the occasional wrinkles, and the overall appearance, modest but immediately likeable.