| Medium | : | Tempera |
|---|---|---|
| Height | : | 22 inch / 55.9 cm |
| Width | : | 28 inch / 71.1 cm |
| Surface | : | Board |
| Style | : | Figurative Paintings |
| Dimension | : | W: 71.1 cm × H: 55.9 cm |
| Year | : | 2015 |
A delightful portrayal of companionship and everyday leisure, Lalu Prasad Shaw’s Babu Bibi shows a traditionally dressed couple enjoying a relaxed game of cards on a sunlit terrace. With its bold yellow backdrop, earthy reds and greens, decorative railing, and Shaw’s characteristic stylised figures, the painting feels playful, warm, and wonderfully nostalgic.
Lalu Prasad Shaw | Babu Bibi | Tempera on Board | 28 x 22 inches | 2015
Lalu Prasad Shaw’s “Babu Bibi” is a charming and distinctly Indian scene that captures an intimate moment of leisure between a traditionally dressed man and woman. Seated comfortably on patterned floor mats, the couple appears engrossed in a playful game of cards, bringing a sense of everyday warmth and companionship to the composition.
The artwork is immediately recognisable for Shaw’s signature stylised figures, clean outlines, simplified forms, and expressive yet understated faces. The woman, dressed in a rich red sari with green and cream borders, holds her cards with quiet confidence, while the man in a striped traditional kurta looks across at her with a relaxed, almost conversational expression. Their interaction gives the work a gentle sense of humour and domestic familiarity.
Set against a vivid yellow background, the scene is framed by a decorative terrace railing, flowering planters, and neatly arranged floor mats. The strong flat colours and carefully balanced geometry create a lively visual rhythm, while the small details—such as the scattered cards, jewellery, hairstyle, spectacles, and clothing—make the scene feel personal and lived-in.
Rendered in tempera on board, the work combines the simplicity of folk-inspired imagery with Shaw’s refined modernist approach. Rather than portraying a grand or dramatic event, Babu Bibi celebrates an ordinary moment of togetherness, making it both visually distinctive and emotionally approachable.
Born in Suri Bengal, in 1937, Lalu Prasad Shaw obtained a Diploma in Painting from the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta, in 1959.
Despite training in Company School art, traditional Kalighat pats and Ajanta cave frescos, Shaw evolved his distinctive style to work in watercolours and oil. His teachers were some of the leading artists of the time, such as Gopal Ghose, Rathin Maitra, and Maniklal Banerjee.
In the 1970s, Shaw mastered the genre of graphics — initiated by the Society of Contemporary Artists — expressing it through the abstract form. Shaw experimented with the two-dimensional, geometric and non-figurative, as is evident in his lithographs.
Unlike his prints, Shaw’s paintings are charged with nostalgia and are object-specific. His brooding characters — men, women, and children — seem frozen into a kind of quiescent gesture; they are formal and speechless, but still expressive. Drawing from Mughal miniatures and adhering largely to profiles framed within borders along the edges, Shaw depicts faces of ordinary people, emphasising their physical characteristics. He has also experimented with landscapes, appearing to merge the urban and rural visual in styles ranging from the minimalist to cubist-inspired. His confident use of broad blocks of colours placed harmoniously is seen here too.
Shaw has exhibited extensively in India and abroad and his works form part of national and international collections. He has received prestigious awards like the West Bengal Lalit Kala Akademi award, the national award of the Lalit Kala Akademi, and the Birla Academy award. He lives and works in Kolkata.
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