The Bengal School of Painting: Institutions Behind the Movement

The Bengal School grew through connected institutions, exhibitions, publications, and teaching. It did not develop through Abanindranath Tagore’s paintings alone. E. B. Havell’s reforms at Calcutta’s Government School of Art, the Indian Society of Oriental Art, and later Kala-Bhavana each played different roles.

These institutions also connected artists to audiences and students. Their histories show how art education changed under colonial rule and during the Swadeshi period.

Sources: Abanindranath Tagore. The Rise of Modernity in South Asia. The Poet, Abanindranath Tagore.

Abanindranath Tagore’s painting “Bharat Mata,” created around 1905, shows a saffron-robed woman holding symbolic objects.

It became one of the most iconic images of Indian nationalism.

The painting turned an abstract political idea, the nation, into a single human figure.

This technique was later repeated across Indian nationalist visual culture, well beyond this one painting.

For the artist’s full life story, see ArtnCulture0163 — Abanindranath Tagore.

Ernest Binfield Havell led the Government School of Art in Calcutta. Abanindranath Tagore studied there and met Havell. Havell supported changes to the curriculum, including the study of Mughal painting and traditional crafts.

Abanindranath became vice-principal in 1905. He brought Indian painting into the curriculum. Havell also promoted Tagore’s work through exhibitions and writing. Their partnership linked teaching, exhibition, and public advocacy.

The school’s institutional setting mattered. It gave artists and educators a place to debate what art students should study. Their approach challenged the dominance of European academic models without erasing all outside influence.

A British art educator backing an anti-Western, swadeshi-era art style shows how complicated cultural politics could get under colonial rule.

Support did not always split neatly along national lines.

The Indian Society of Oriental Art emerged around 1907 from exhibitions by Bengal School artists. Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore were central figures. The society brought artists, supporters, and audiences together in Calcutta.

The society helped consolidate the movement’s Indianising agenda. It also provided an organised platform for showing work. Avoid describing it as a formal school that trained all Bengal School artists.

This institution later appeared in a CDS I 2020 question. The question asks who was one of its founders. The correct option is Abanindranath Tagore, not Rabindranath Tagore.

Sources: Annual Report 2017–18. The Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta of 1907. Indian Society of Oriental Art. The Bengal School of Painting: Institutions Behind the Movement. UPSC CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge, full question paper. UPSC previous question papers archive.

Sunayani Devi, Abanindranath Tagore’s sister, was a self-taught painter linked to the Bengal School.

She developed her own folk-influenced style, distinct from her brother’s more classical approach.

Her self-taught path stood apart from the formal academic training most Bengal School men received.

This shows the movement had more than one route into art, even within a single family.

Rabindranath Tagore founded Kala-Bhavana at Santiniketan in 1919. It began before Visva-Bharati became a university in 1921. Tagore saw art as part of a broad education, not only professional training.

Nandalal Bose led Kala-Bhavana as principal for decades. Sources date the start between 1921 and 1922. Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij later taught there. Students learned through art practice, teaching, and engagement with nature and local life.

Santiniketan built on earlier efforts around Abanindranath and his students. It also developed distinct aims under Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. Visva-Bharati describes this approach as broader than nationalist or revivalist art alone.

Kala-Bhavana’s legacy includes teaching, studios, exhibitions, and collections. Its early teachers helped shape later generations of modern Indian artists.

Sources: Kala-Bhavana institutional profile. 2018–19 annual report. Benode Behari Mukherjee and Santiniketan.

• Havell and Abanindranath: curriculum reform and Indian art at Calcutta’s art school.
• Around 1907: the Indian Society of Oriental Art organised exhibitions and built a public platform.
• 1919: Kala-Bhavana began at Santiniketan, before Visva-Bharati’s university status.
• Early 1920s: Nandalal Bose became Kala-Bhavana principal (sources say 1921 or 1922).
• Later Santiniketan: Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij joined its teaching community.

Sources: Nandalal Bose.

CDS I 2020 asked who was one of the founders of the Indian Society of Oriental Art. The options were:

1. Rabindranath Tagore
2. Abanindranath Tagore
3. Dwarakanath Tagore
4. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya

The answer is (b) Abanindranath Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore is the most famous Tagore, which makes him a tempting wrong answer. He founded Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan, a separate institution.

Dwarakanath Tagore belonged to an earlier generation entirely.

The Society was founded by Abanindranath Tagore along with his brother Gaganendranath Tagore and others. E. B. Havell was a key early supporter.

• [First] Painter Jogen Chowdhury died in Kolkata on 25 October 2026, aged 87. He drew in ink and pastel, not in the soft wash of the Bengal School. So what: his bold line shows how Bengal art moved on from the wash style. (Source: ThePrint) (Source: Business Standard) (Source: The Wire)

Read his life and style in Jogen Chowdhury: The Painter of Ink and Pastel.