(1871-1951)

Abanindranath was born in the illustrious family of Tagores. Alongwith with his elder brother Gaganendranath he was strongly influenced by their highly talended uncle Rabindranath, both of whom excelled in painting. Abanindranath became the pioneer of what is known as Revivalism in paintings,i.e. he absorbed influences from traditional Indian styles as much as European naturalism combined with certain effects of Japanese water colour. landscapes to arrive at an elegant linear configuration in his first set of paintings which was published in the British Journal Studies in 1902 by E.B. Havell but it was the Omar Khayyam set which made him famous.
"Abanindranath was appointed Vice Principal of the Calcutta College of Fine Arts by Havell from where he had to resign in 1915. He became a teacher of many young artists who came to study under him like Nand Lal Bose who made the Bengal School Style as the basis of teachings at Santiniketan from around 1919 onwards, In 1915 Abanindranath did an important series of water colours called Bengal Actors and Phalguni series. During 1920 he executed several portraits including the Tagores, Gandhi and Andrew trio. Subsequently he painted the important Arabian Nights Series in a combination of Pahari and Mughal Styles. During the 1930s he developed relatively a freer style of painting. Sometimes these were in the form of bold drawings with themes from Krishna Mangal and Hitopdesh. He also wrote the theoretical writings on art and aesthetics in Bengali which have been compiled as Bageshvari lectures. He pased his last days as Vice Chancellor Visvabharti at Santiniketan.