| Medium | : | Tempera |
|---|---|---|
| Height | : | 28 inch / 71.1 cm |
| Width | : | 22 inch / 55.9 cm |
| Surface | : | Board |
| Style | : | Animals paintings, Figurative Paintings |
| Dimension | : | W: 55.9 cm × H: 71.1 cm |
| Year | : | 2018 |
Lalu Prasad Shaw’s Bibi with Butterfly is a vibrant 2018 tempera-on-board painting featuring a graceful Bengali woman in profile, dressed in a blue striped sari and holding flowers. Set against a bold red background, the artwork combines traditional Bengali aesthetics with Shaw’s signature stylised forms, expressive linework and rich colours. A distinctive piece of Indian modern art, it beautifully captures the elegance, simplicity and cultural charm of Bengal.
Lalu Prasad Shaw | Bibi | Tempera on Board | 28 x 22 inches | 2018
The painting presents a graceful Bengali woman in profile, dressed in a beautifully patterned blue sari and adorned with traditional jewellery. She gently holds a small arrangement of flowers, while a delicate butterfly appears beside her. The striking red background, bold black outlines, flat areas of colour, and carefully rendered details give the composition a distinctive, almost timeless quality.
Shaw is particularly known for his stylised portrayals of Bengali men and women. His visual language draws from Kalighat painting, Indian miniature traditions, Ajanta murals, and Company School art, while his use of simplified forms and strong colour fields gives these traditional influences a distinctly modern character.
What makes the painting especially appealing is its sense of quiet elegance. The woman is not shown in a dramatic narrative moment; instead, the flowers, butterfly, jewellery, sari and serene profile create a small, intimate glimpse into everyday Bengali life. This is characteristic of Shaw’s Babu–Bibi series, which explores the appearance, manners and everyday world of the Bengali middle class.
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.
If you’d prefer the artwork to arrive ready to hang, please get in touch with us to arrange framing and shipping at applicable charges.
Please note: Customs duties and import taxes may apply at your destination in accordance with your country’s regulations. Refer to our International Shipment document for guidance and support.
| Medium | |
|---|---|
| Height | |
| Width | |
| Surface | |
| Style |
