| Medium | : | Tempera |
|---|---|---|
| Height | : | 25 inch / 63.5 cm |
| Width | : | 20.5 inch / 52.1 cm |
| Surface | : | Board |
| Style | : | Figurative Paintings |
| Dimension | : | W: 52.1 cm × H: 63.5 cm |
| Year | : | 2015 |
A serene tempera painting by Lalu Prasad Shaw depicting a graceful female figure in profile, accompanied by floral and natural motifs. With its flat colors, clean lines, and folk-inspired aesthetic, the artwork exudes quiet elegance and contemplative beauty.
Lalu Prasad Shaw | Untitled | Tempera on Board | 25 x 20.5 inches | 2015
This elegant tempera painting by Lalu Prasad Shaw exemplifies his refined visual language, deeply rooted in Bengali folk traditions and modernist stylization. The artwork portrays a contemplative female figure in profile, rendered with elongated features, smooth contours, and a serene expression. Her poised hand gesture and delicately adorned fingers add a sense of grace and introspection.
Set against a warm, earthy background, the composition is enriched with symbolic elements — a blooming flower, softly fluttering butterflies, and a glowing moon. These motifs evoke a quiet, lyrical atmosphere, suggesting themes of beauty, femininity, and harmony with nature. The stylized treatment of the figure, combined with flat planes of color and precise line work, creates a balanced and meditative visual rhythm.
Shaw’s use of tempera lends the surface a matte, velvety finish, enhancing the clarity of form and color. The restrained palette, punctuated by soft yellows and greens, complements the calm demeanor of the subject. This work stands as a timeless representation of the artist’s ability to blend narrative simplicity with poetic depth, making it both visually captivating and emotionally resonant.
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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