Kshitindra Nath Mazumdar

O C Gangoly, Kshitindra Nath Mazumdar, Kolkata: Harimohon Mukhurji at the Clive Press, 1923

pp. viii, 42 + 5 tipped colour plates [one folding] and 21 photogravures, each with tissue guard bearing the title in red; bound in grey paper-covered boards with parchment spine. Black and white portrait of Mazumdar pasted on the cover with the title embossed in gilt.
8.4 x 5.9 in (21.5 x 15 cm)

There was a limited edition version of 100 copies. This is the unnumbered copy [limitation mentioned on p. 42].

Dedicated to Abanindra Nath Tagore with a 3-stanza Sanskrit poem printed in red.

Volume 1 of Modern Indian Artists. It is the only volume published in this series. Three further volumes in the series were announced of which only the one on Asit Kumar Haldar was printed before the series was discontinued.

In 1920 a journal titled Rupam was started by the Indian Society of Oriental Art based in Calcutta. Its editor Ordhendra Coomar Gangoly was a big promoter of the Bengal School artists. He decided in 1923 to launch a series titled "Modern Indian Artists" in a limited edition which seemed to spare no expense in terms of production values. Wove paper with deckled edges, parchment spines with leather title tickets, gilt-embossments and artists' sepia portraits pasted on cover, title-pages and dedications printed in red, paintings printed in sepia photogravures or in colour in which case they were tipped onto thick grey sheets with tissue guards bearing titles in red, and printing done on handpresses with fancy typefaces were the hallmarks of these volumes. The series was supposed to cover a number of artists but the project was abandoned after only two volumes had come out.The first volume was on Kshitindra Nath Mazumdar [mis-spelt Khsitindra on the title-page which was replaced with a corrected title-page only after some copies had sold] and the second on Asit Haldar. The latter was even more lavish and larger than the first volume and signified Gangoly's increasing faith in the merits of the artists he had chosen to promote. Both the volumes are included in this sale.