Page 210 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

GRAPHIC DESIGN 207

On the other hand, we find information about a different kind of cover from researcher
Manmathnath Ghosh about one of the geniuses among early Bengali book illustrators,
Girindrakumar Datta (1841-1909). According to him, ‘Girindrakumar planned a
beautiful illustration for one of Michael’s book-covers. At the bottom of the picture a
man (the poet) with a dark complexion wearing a coat and trousers is lying down
intoxicated, with a wine glass and bottle nearby and the goddess of speech is emitting
rays of creativity above the head of the slumbering poet. I have heard Michael greatly
appreciated the painter after a glance at the illustration.’ [Trans.] It is to be mentioned
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that Girindrakumar was not a student of the Art School. He was self-taught. In the
second edition (1870) of Parichand Mitra’s (Tekchand Tagore), Alaler Ghorer Dulal
six lithographs of Girindrakumar can be found. Four years after this, Shyamacharan
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Srimani’s (?-1875) book on art, Arya Jatir Shilpachaturi (1874) was published. This
is the first modern book on the ancient art of India. It goes without saying that this
book was embellished with lithograph and woodcut prints. 38
Throughout the 19th century, even after the so-called renaissance of Bengal there was
no strong base or style in the art of book design and illustration of Bangladesh. We had
to wait until the next century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the book cover and
illustration in Bangladesh found its own distinct style through the publication of
Thakurmar Jhuli in 1907. It is popularly known that Dakshina Ranjan Mitra
Majumdar, the author of the book, did the illustrations himself. Famous artist
Priyagopal Das (1870-1928) and a few others converted these illustrations into wood
engraving. We find the name of engravers in the acknowledgment page of the book. 39
However, according to Soumyen Pal, ‘Priyagopal Das, a famous wood-engraver of
those times drew the pictures and engraved them.’ [Trans.] But most researchers
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have agreed that Dakshina Ranjan Mitra Majumdar, the writer, was also the illustrator
of this book. These black and white illustrations are still memorable considering the
natural skill in drawing and the creative imagination of the artist. The principal
characteristics of these pictures is that they were drawn in a pure Bengali style (may
be the idea of the Bengali style developed based on these drawings). We still visualize
the monsters, beasts, or other characters of these fairy tales through these amazing
drawings of Dakshina Ranjan Mitra Majumdar’s Thakurmar Jhuli.
In the history of book illustration, the person who should be remembered first is
Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri. The invention and use of half-tone block (1897?) is his
greatest contribution. Printing was done in line-block before this and there was no
option of printing tones. Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri was the first person to explore
this possibility. He was a writer, painter, musician, and printer at the same time. His
first significant publication was Sekaler Katha (1903). The cover was designed with
the title embossed in golden on red rexin and a pre-historic creature drawn in black
raising its head from the sea trying to grab a pterodactyl embossed in golden. The book
had seventeen full-page half-tone illustrations, one painted in two colors and many
small pictures. The director of public instruction of Bengal during that time