| Medium | : | Watercolour |
|---|---|---|
| Height | : | 21.9 inch / 55.6 cm |
| Width | : | 14.9 inch / 37.8 cm |
| Dimension | : | W: 37.8 cm × H: 55.6 cm |
This diptych by Paritosh Sen, created in 2005, beautifully captures the quiet act of reading through two distinct yet complementary portraits. Executed in watercolor on paper, the works highlight Sen’s signature style of exaggerated forms and expressive linework, which blend caricature with modernist sensibilities.
₹400,000.00
Paritosh Sen | Untitled (Reading Book) | Watercolour on Paper (Diptych) | 21.9 x 14.9 inches, Set of 2 works ( Unframed & Delivered )
This diptych by Paritosh Sen, created in 2005, beautifully captures the quiet act of reading through two distinct yet complementary portraits. Executed in watercolor on paper, the works highlight Sen’s signature style of exaggerated forms and expressive linework, which blend caricature with modernist sensibilities. The male figure on the left, rendered with a striped shirt and a downward gaze, is absorbed in his book, his features elongated and stylized to emphasize concentration. On the right, the female figure, with her sharp profile, tied hair, and patterned attire, mirrors a similar engagement with her book, suggesting a shared intellectual pursuit or private moment of reflection. Despite their distorted proportions, both figures exude a sense of intimacy and individuality, embodying Sen’s ability to elevate everyday activities into meaningful artistic narratives. The monochromatic palette, combined with fluid brushstrokes and delicate shading, enhances the simplicity of the scene while drawing focus to the act of reading as a universal gesture of knowledge, solitude, and contemplation.
Drawn to art through the pages of the bengali art journal Prabasi, Paritosh Sen ran away from his home in Dacca (Dhaka), now in Bangladesh, to learn art in Madras.
Uninfluenced by the European modern art trends till the 1940s, Sen experimented with a vocabulary drawn from Indian idioms. Exposure to the works of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gaugin, and other masters, through their reproductions during his teaching years at Art College, Indore, sparked off Sen’s interest in form. In 1942, he participated in the only exhibition of the Calcutta Group, of which he was a founder member.
However, it was Sen’s visit to Paris in 1949 that saw him formally acquainted with European art; he also met Pablo Picasso on this trip. Sen returned to India in 1954 and subsequently made paintings with themes from everyday life. His spontaneous response to the traumatic socio-political changes in West Bengal in the 1970s resulted in a series, where, along with large canvases, he installed a papier-mâché sculpture conveying a poster-like simplification of pop art, inspired by his travels in Mexico and Egypt.
Sen wrote on art for leading English and Bengali journals. In 1986, he wrote and illustrated a story in English, published by National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The French government conferred on him the L’officier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres and the Lalit Kala Akademi honoured him with the title of Lalit Kala Ratna in 2004. He passed away on 22 October 2008 in Kolkata.
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