| Medium | : | Acrylic |
|---|---|---|
| Height | : | 13.5 inch / 34.3 cm |
| Width | : | 10.2 inch / 25.9 cm |
| Dimension | : | W: 25.9 cm × H: 34.3 cm |
A contemplative watercolor by Shyamal Dutta Ray depicting a horse-drawn cart, rendered in earthy tones and expressive washes that reflect rural life, endurance, and quiet strength.
Shyamal Dutta Ray | Untitled | Watercolour on Paper | 10.2 x 13.5 inches | 2003
This watercolor on paper by Shyamal Dutta Ray captures a quiet yet powerful moment drawn from the everyday rhythms of rural life. The central motif—a horse harnessed to a cart—stands with a dignified stillness, its slightly bowed head and taut body conveying both endurance and restraint. Executed in layered washes and textured brushwork, the artist uses a subdued palette of earthy browns, slate blues, and muted greys to evoke an atmosphere of timeworn familiarity. The background architecture, loosely articulated and partially dissolved into tonal planes, suggests a village or small-town setting without anchoring the scene to a specific place, allowing memory and mood to take precedence over narrative detail. Dutta Ray’s handling of watercolor is confident and expressive; the medium’s translucency enhances the sense of impermanence and lived reality. The painting resonates as a metaphor for labour, patience, and quiet resilience—where the animal becomes a symbol of rural existence shaped by work, repetition, and unspoken dignity.
Laden with satire and wit, and often subtly political, Shyamal Dutta Ray’s work communicated his preoccupation with the human condition.
Among the most accomplished watercolourists of modern India, he was born in Ranchi, then in Bihar, and studied at Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, from 1950-55. He was a founding member of Society of Contemporary Artists in 1959, and of Painters 80, founded in 1968.
Dutta Ray suffered from severe ill-health while growing up and witnessed the horrors of the 1943 Bengal famine as a child, both of which impacted his life and art tremendously. He began his career working in oil but had to switch to watercolour on medical advice as he was allergic to oil paints. Dutta Ray became a master of the demanding medium of watercolour and brought about a major development in its application by using saturated hues instead of the diluted colours prevalent among his contemporaries. He painted the contradictory contemporary reality of Calcutta, filled with sorrow, poverty, despair, as also happiness, and hope.
The masterful depiction of pathos in watercolours won him several awards within India and abroad including the gold medal of Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta, in 1958, the Rabindra Bharati University award in 1968, several annual awards of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta, Lalit Kala Akademi’s national award in 1982, and the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath award and the Shiromani Puraskar, both in 1988. He passed away in 2005.
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