Page 212 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

GRAPHIC DESIGN 209

published with his illustrations (fig. 4.13). Later it was published as a
book from Visva-Bharati. In the history of book illustration in
Bangladesh this book added a new dimension. We must mention the
illustration of Rabindranath’s two-part book Sahaj Path. In the first
part he used the technique of linocut in an amazing interplay of black
and white. On the other hand, in the second part we see very simple
and pleasant pictures drawn with thin lines. Nandalal Bose can be
identified as one of the pioneers of local book illustration.
Jasimuddin’s Baluchar, Gurusaday Dutt’s Bhojar Banshi,
Sharatchandra’s Pather Dabi or Rabindranath’s Chhinnapatra are
some of the best covers done by Nandalal Bose.
A few more artists in the 30s and 40s are important for cover and
illustration of Bengali books only. Among them Purnachandra
Chakravarty (1903-?), Charu Ray (1890-1971), Pratul
Bandopadhyaya (1902-1974), Samar Dey (1907-?), Jatindrakumar
Sen (1882-1966), Ashu Bandopadhyaya (1916-1976), Surya Ray
(1913-1979), Purnachandra Ghosh or P.Ghosh (1885-1949), and
others can be mentioned. However, all of them were more enthusiastic
about drawing pictures in consistency with the story rather than
creative illustration. Their work is so realistic and faithful to the
original story that it does not add any dimension to it. Pratul
Bandopadhyaya was the principal illustrator of children’s book for more than two fig. 4.14 (top) Makhan
decades. He spontaneously created rhythm and made the characters realistic in Datta Gupta,
illustrating detective or adventure stories. He and Purnachandra Ghosh were the Shakuntala, illustration
illustrators of most of the books published from Dev Sahitya Kutir.
Ashu Bandopadhyaya, student of Aban Tagore showed excellence in cover and
illustration art. He did numerous book covers and illustrations between 1935 to 1950.
He designed the covers of most of the books by ‘Mitra and Ghosh’. Bibhutibhushan’s
Aranyak is one of his significant works. Rajshekhar Bose’s books always had the
covers or illustrations done by Jatin Sen. On the other hand, Sibram Chakrabarti’s
books without Shaila Chakraborty’s illustrations, cover and calligraphy were
unimaginable. But another contemporary artist of that time, Jamini Roy (1889-1972)
presented covers in sophisticated colors drawn with the subtle use of his unique style.
Amiya Chakrabarty’s Annada, Sudhin Dutta’s Uttar Phalguni, Buddhadeva Basu’s
Kaler Putul are some of his memorable works. Jamini Roy is memorable for his
covers of Bishnu Dey’s books of poetry.
There were a few others who were closely linked with the advertising industry but also
presented some wonderful covers. Among them Rathin Moitreya (1913-?) and
Makhan Datta Gupta deserve special mention (fig 4.14).
Before and after partition, three persons who made an amazing contribution to the
Kolkata centered Bengali book publication are Satyajit Ray, Khaled Chowdhury, and