Bengal master Bireswar Sen has captured the essence of pristine Himalayas in his work. By Uma Nair

Think of the miniature format in a postcard, add to it the magic of landscapes bathed in pristine pure rays of light belonging to the tropics or the Himalayan mountains. Imagine there are just one or two people inhabiting these rare mountainscapes, and you see the majesty and ingenuous hand of Bengal master Bireswar Sen.

At the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi is a delightful show of 80 works by artist Bireswar Sen. Director-General Adwaita Gadanayak has culled the show from the NGMA collection in a bid to invite scholarship and deep understanding of the study of landscapes in an age besieged by technology. Sen studied under Abanindranath Tagore and Nandlal Bose but was deeply influenced by Nicholas Roerich in 1932. This show, of which a greater part belongs to the NGMA archives, is like a pilgrimage.

Spiritual Voyage

Indeed the exhibition symbolises a voyage into the embodiment of  deep spirituality as it merges man and nature. There is devotion and a mystic quietude in works that recreate in the small format William Blake’s “eternity in an hour.” Sen conjured  landscapes and nature, gesture and expression, as well as solitude and spirituality within the miniature format.

But Sen, a lecturer in English, was deeply influenced by the master Nicholas Roerich. It was Roerich who introduced him to the rare vignettes of mountain passes, the gorges and crevices and the incandescent quality of atmospherics in the Himalayas.

However their treatment differed vastly. While Roerich painted large majestic mountains on canvasses, Sen created miniatures without losing the majesty of the mountains and also gave us tiny human figures-all on little postcard size formats. “These works must be studied and enjoyed for their minute offerings, the detailing is so fine,” affirms Gadanayak.

Taught by Three Tagores

Bireswar Sen studied English literature at Presidency College Kolkata and was simultaneously trained in art by the three Tagores — Rabindranath, Abanindranath, whom Sen considered his guru, and Gaganendranath. He also taught English in Patna University and never lost his passion for writing and literature.

While Sen may have chosen a small format, we are given the impression of vast and wide open spaces, of rarefied atmosphere, and a limpid light that can be glimpsed in the upper reaches of the Himalayas.

The technical feat is what amazes viewers. Sen squeezes  panoramic views  into  9cm x 6cm frames. It’s uncanny how  the  artist captures the loftiness and   transcendence  of 19th century practitioners in the West. Sen used the miniscule format with tempera and watercolour with the wash method.

Slopes and Shades of mountains

Finer nuances in strokes, gestural techniques and translation of   earth tones and the mountain slopes into  shades more dense than the sky, give us a feel of Sen’s love for nature and his insight into a romantic vision of nature.

You can note than Sen had a deep insight into the physical grandness of  the Himalayas, the forests and the vast plains through which rivers and streams ran. At the NGMA, Gadanayak has designed the exhibition in the style of old masters by even designing  the frames in wood finish mahogany with ivory mounts.

Intriguing is the extent and strength of observation of such an artist. The study of  nature  and  the wash technique with the lightest of touches is rare and this is what makes these works so special.

Pellucid, Transparent light

The passion and perfection of intent come through as the works also speak of Sen’s accuracy and panache, of how he could capture the manifestation of an  illusion of the pellucid, almost transparent light and its tinted opacity  effects on the snow-capped mountain ranges and the dark, barren hills.

The show offers intricate and laborious technique  detailings. Sen used  orange, ochre, blues, greys and earth browns of  various degrees of brightness and depth.  Sometimes he could give us a  night sky up with a tiny burning lamp on a beach side. He could also bring alive the poets of old, the alchemy of nirgun poets who spoke of equivocal tones and realities and the paradox of mortality and immortality all rolled into the capsule that we call time.