Rathindranath Maitra or Rathin Maitra in short (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: রথীন মৈত্র), also spelt as Rathin Moitra (July 10, 1913 – July 3, 1997), was a prominent Bengali painter. He was one of the new generation of Indian modernist painters and co-founder of the

Calcutta Group The Calcutta Group was a group of modern artists in India, formed in 1943 in Kolkata. It has the distinction of being the first artistic movement of its kind in both Bengal and all of India. Though short-lived – the group disbanded in 1953 � ...

in 1943.অঞ্জলি বসু সম্পাদিত, ''সংসদ বাঙালি চরিতাভিধান'', দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড, সাহিত্য সংসদ, কলকাতা, জানুয়ারি ২০১৯ পৃষ্ঠা ৩৩৯ (in Bengali),

Birth and early life

Rathin Maitra was born on 10 July in the year 1913 in Shitalai House, in Pabna of British India (present day Bangladesh). His father, zamindar Jogendranath Maitra, was a leader of the national movement and used to have a great interest in Hindustani classical music. His mother was Sarala Devi, the daughter of Raja Kishorilal Goswami of Serampore. Eminent orator and patriot Tulsi Charan Goswami was his maternal uncle, and poet and singer Jyotirindra Maitra was his elder brother. At the Bhawanipur Mitra Institution in Calcutta, he was trained in

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

by Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury. After completing his matriculation in 1931, he started his education at the then Government School of Fine Arts (present day Government College of Art and Craft) in Calcutta from where he passed the final examination with distinction in 1937. Later, he came in contact with

Nandalal Bose Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his "Indian style" of painting. He became the principa ...

Benode Behari Mukherjee Benode Behari Mukherjee (7 February 1904 – 11 November 1980) was an Indian artist from West Bengal state. Mukherjee was one of the pioneers of Indian modern art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. He was one of the earliest artists in mod ...

and

Ramkinkar Baij Ramkinkar Baij ( bn, রামকিঙ্কর বেইজ) (25 May 1906 – 2 August 1980) was an Indian sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. Early life and ...

at the Kala Bhavana in

Santiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...

Career

He then travelled around India in search of Indian heritage to get an opportunity to know the social customs, manners, arts of different regions of the country. Both the Rajput paintings and the Pahari paintings influenced him a lot. At that time in 1943, during the Second World War and the

Bengal famine of 1943 The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 0.8 to 3.8 million Bengalis perished, out of a population of 60.3 millio ...

Subho Tagore Subho Tagore, full name Subhagendranath Tagore (Bengali language, Bengali: সুভো ঠাকুর) (January 3, 1912 – July 17, 1985), was the great-grandson of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore. He was a painter, poet, magazine editor and ar ...

Nirode Mazumdar Nirode Mazumdar (11 May 1916 – 26 September 1982) was an Indian people, Indian painter from the first generation of modernists, and a key member of the Calcutta Group. Almost a forgotten figure today, he strode the art scenario from the 40's l ...

, Pradosh Dasgupta,

Paritosh Sen Paritosh Sen ( bn, পরিতোষ সেন) (26 September 1918 – 22 October 2008) was a leading Indian artist. He was born in Dhaka (then known as Dacca), the present-day capital of Bangladesh. He was a founder member of the Calcutta ...

Gopal Ghose Gopal Ghose (5 December 1913 – 30 July 1980) was an Indian painter from West Bengal. In 1943, he was one of the founders of the Calcutta Group, perhaps the first group of modernist painters in India. Life and career Ghose was born in Calcut ...

, Prankrishna Pal and he himself formed a fine art group called the

in Calcutta. During his career, he also taught at the Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata for several years and later became the Honorary Joint Secretary of the

Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata The Academy of Fine Arts, in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is one of the oldest fine arts societies in India. History The academy was formally established in 1933 by Lady Ranu Mukherjee. It was initially located in a room loaned by the India ...

. In 1953, he was responsible for directing the first exhibition of

Indian painting Indian painting has a very long tradition and history in Indian art, though because of the climatic conditions very few early examples survive.Blurton, 193 The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, such as the ...

s in the United States, a joint initiative of the then Government of India and the

. He received the huge opportunity to visit art galleries in various European countries while there and back. During the course of that time, for notable novelist and playwright

Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...

, and renowned Indian philosopher and monk of the Ramakrishna order Swami Prabhavananda's translated version of the ''

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...

'' into English titled '' Bhagavad Gita - Song of God'', he designed and painted the cover. Apart from oil and watercolour, he also excelled in scale drawing. He had a reputation as an art teacher. His paintings are preserved in various art museums in India and in private collections of many individuals abroad. He was also invited by the Bombay Art Society to hold a solo show in September 1947.

Death

Maitra passed away on 3rd July in the year 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maitra, Rathin 1913 births 1997 deaths Artists from Kolkata