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Though art historian and scholar R. Siva Kumar describes the Paintings of Gaganendranath Tagore as ‘primarily a book of images’ with its large body of the Master’s works reproduced in a large format, in fact the largest collection so far, it unravels a sparsely documented narrative that pieces together a series of personal losses and the corresponding creative responses as they add up to a rich prospect covering richly nuanced landscapes, encounters with and re-creations of memory, legendary narratives, caricatures, Cubist vision, and visionary dreamscapes. An intensely private, self trained practitioner of the arts, Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938) had almost nothing to say about his painting, leaving the critic to speculate in a critical void. In his speculations, the author opens up a whole new space for re-viewing and re-reading Gaganendranath.

Contents: 1. Note from the Publisher. 2. Introduction. 3. The world around. 4. Seen and imagined landscapes. 5. Puri and nocturnals. 6. Chaitanya and other narratives. 7. Bizzare truths. 8. An engagement with the mountains. 9. Cubist visions. 10. Towards a silent darkness. 11. Conclusion. Chronology.