Untitled (Mountains and Clouds)

This painting of mountain peaks surrounded by clouds attests to Nandalal Bose’s enduring interest in Japanese painting techniques, which he learned from Japanese artists visiting the Government School of Art in Calcutta between 1905 and 1907. The cloud and mountain forms take shape through two techniques foreign to Indian painting traditions: diluting the ink, which creates washes of gray like those at the upper right, and modulating the pressure of the brush to create the saturated tones and drier textures of the rock face.