PAINTINGS
A
multi-faceted personality, Rabindranath took to painting seriously in
1928 when he was in his late sixties. It was shortly before this that
he was seized with an urge to experiment in what was for him a new medium
of creative expression. He had always been drawn to this art and had occasionally
cast furtive and longing glances at it, ever since as a young boy he had
seen his elder and versatile brother Jyotirindranath draw.
Later, when his nephews Abanindranath and Gaganendranath discovered their
talents in painting he encouraged them in their pursuit and helped in
founding what came to be known as the Bengal movement in Indian art. But
he himself did not take the brush in hand.
But though he did not wield a brush, he doodled freely with his pen.
His manuscripts bear ample and fascinating testimony to these playful
exercises interwoven with his verses.