Mukul Dey working on his copper plate at Chitralekha, c. 1982
Photo: Keisuke InanoIndian painter-engraver Mukul Chandra Dey (1895-1989) — better known as Mukul Dey — was an important personality of his time. A student of Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan School during the early years of the 20th century (c. 1906-1912), he left his mark as a pioneer of drypoint-etching in India.

An extremely sensitive artist (perhaps temperamental at times), he chose an essentially Western medium to depict subjects of Indian life and legends from a common man’s viewpoint. The river scenes of Bengal, the baul singers, the bazaars of Calcutta or the life of Santhal villages in Birbhum — all these attracted his attention and he recorded his vision with deep feeling and a rare sureness of hand.

Sarada Ukil as King Shuddhodana in Franz Osten’s movie The Light of Asia, 1925.
Photo: UnknownReprinted from ‘Art & Deal’, January-February, 2001.

”New Delhi as I knew in the pre-partition days was virtually a desert culturally, though the old walled city of Delhi enjoyed an age-old cultural tradition. New Delhi was brand new but culture and its manifestations take breeding time and suitable stimulus. In this uninspiring environment it was a bold effort on the part of late Sarada Ukil, to establish his atelier and teaching workshop at New Delhi… (the Ukil brothers’) imagination and energy did not rest at that. The Ukils sponsored an adjunct of the School of Art — The All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society”, wrote Prof. B. C. Sanyal. (Roop-Lekha, 1982, p. 64)

Shantanu Ukil at Chitralekha, Santiniketan, 2005
Photo: Vineet SabharwalIt is ideal to write something on Shantanu Ukil and his art recounting the days of early 20th century advent of Bengal School in northern India and the pioneering contribution of Ukil Brothers in making the new capital of modern India a prominent centre of cultural activities during pre and post-independence years. Without these details the narrative would be kind of incomplete.

Beginning of Modern Indian Art in Delhi