1914 Watercolour on Gold paint 7.0 X 10.0 in. (17.8 X 25.4 cms)

Signed in English (Lower left)

Largely a self-taught academic realist, Bhabani Chandra Law (original Bengali surname is Laha), was a landholder, owned a lucrative business and was a prominent socialite. But art was his first love. His works were published in various journals including Aryavarta, Prabasi, Bharatvarsha and Manashi. He contributed articles on art in English and Bengali. He was the Joint President and Founder member of Indian Institute of Art and Industry, Calcutta. In 1919 he became the Founder member of Indian Academy of Fine Art, along with Jogeshchandra Seal, Jamini Roy, Hemendranath Mazumdar and Atul Bose. Bhabani Charan was the Founder and Secretary of Society of Fine Arts, Kolkata, and a Fellow at Royal Academy of Arts, London.

He worked in an art milieu in Calcutta when Hemendranath Mazumdar, Atul Bose and other stalwarts of the time were challenging the validity of ‘nationalist’ objectives of the Bengal School. A widely admired subject painter of his time, Bhabhani Charan was highly skilled in the handling of transparent watercolours and oil paint on canvas. He painted scenes from the Indian epics, Puranic and historical episodes, and literary themes.

Bhabani Charan Law was more popular as the painter of young beauties in admirable postures. His popularity owed much to the photographic naturalism that they projected, bereft of any philosophical bias. The women he painted are warm, desirable and lively, neither stylized nor lacking sensuality. Law’s paintings celebrate the aesthetics of western academic naturalism that ran parallel to the much admired Bengal School.