International studio (18.1902/1903)

restored to them, the Court artists were free to
exercise their talents under the most favourable
auspices.
Under these stimulating conditions a new and
characteristicahy Ind!an school of pictorial art
began to graft itseif upon
the traditions imported
from Persia. The early
work of Akbar's reign
follows to a great extent
the archaic and highiy
conventionalised style of
the old Persian schooi,
but towards the end of
his reign thegreatruier's
genius had impressed it-
seif upon the art in which
he took so eniightened
an interest. The new
school was realistic in
the sense that it went
direct to nature for in-
spiration, but it did not,
iike some modern Euro-
pean realists, Hing artistic
tradition to the winds.
The Mcgul artists added
to the wonderful tech-
nical qualities and the
strong decorative in-
stinct of the Persian
schooi a greater anato-
mical precision in the
drawing of the hgure,
and an almost Holbein-
esque power of dehneat-
ing character in their portraiture. Under Jehangir,
the son and successor of Akbar, who inherited
all his father's taste, these new ideas continued to
bear fruit, and gave fair promise of the deveiop-
ment of a reahy great school of Indian painting.
Though Shah Jehan's artistic interests inciined
more to architecture than to painting, there is
nothing to show that he activeiy discouraged the
artists whom his father and grandfather had
patronised so iiberaily. But the bigotry of
Aurungzebe, the successor of Shah Jehan, wrecked
the fair prospects of the Mogui schooi of painting.
He enforced again the strict observance of the
Mahomedan law, banished from his Court the
artists who had impiousiy disregarded it, and muti-
iated or defaced ail the sculpture and paintings
which were deemed to be irreiigious.
This was the beginning of a period which has

been most disastrous to aH art progress in India.
The traditions of the Mogui school were continued
by artists who settled at Deihi, Jeypore, Lahore,
Mysore, and elsewhere; but painting as a Hne art
never regained the position and dignity it enjoyed
under Akbar and
Jehangir. Nevertheless,
during the short period
of their prosperity, and
even afterwards under
the successive blight of
Mahomedan bigotry,
political anarchy, and
British philistinism, the
Mogul artists produced
a record of Indian life,
manners, and history
which has been almost
entirely ignored, even
by those who are in-
terested in the art and
archteology of the great
Indian empire.
This brief sketch of
the history of painting
in India is necessary for
the right understanding
of the work of Mr.
Abanindro Nath Ta-
gore, of Calcutta, which
I now introduce to the
readers ofTHE Si'UDio.
Mr. A. N. Tagore comes
of an old Indian family
distinguished for its
literary, musical, and
artistic talent. One of his brothers, Mr. Robindro
Nath Tagore, has won a great reputation as a
Bengali poet and dramatist. Another near relative,
Sir Sourindro Mohun Tagore, Mus. Doc., has
earned a European name as the chief authority on
Indian music.
It speaks much for Mr. Tagore's genuine artistic
instinct that he has not allowed his talent to be
misled by the many snares which beset the path of
the Indian art student. It is often made a reproach
against the present generation of Indians that so
few have shown any originality in artistic or literary
thought. The reproach should rather be levelled
against our educational systern; for if the system had
been expressly contrived for the stiHing and crush-
ing out of all originality, nothing could have been
better adapted for the purpose than what is called
" higher education " in India. Original artistic
29


"THE TRAVELLER AND
THE LOTUS"

BY ABANINDRO NATH
TAGORE