Untitled (Mother and Child)

It was only at the age of thirty four that Jamini Roy began to paint in the style he is known for today. Growing up in Bengal, he was always familiar with folk art, but it was only in the 1920's that he began to experiment with traditional folk techniques. He then began to use a characteristically bright palette to create flat planes of color within his images; the outlines of which are defined with strong black lines. "The enclosure of the bright spaces in thick black lines gives the color areas an added luminosity like that of stained glass." (Jaya Appaswamy, Jamini Roy: A Homage, Lalit Kala Contemporary 15, February 1973, p. 45)
This lot and lot 11 in the sale are charming depictions of typical Indian village life which have universal appeal, whether the wedding scene of lot 11 or the simple sari clad mother with child in arms, possibly Roy's homage to the Pieta.