Handpainted – Matisse and Jamini Roy-Inspired – Marjara Vatsalya

Provenance

'Marjara Vatsalya' is a study of tenderness in a very graphic form: a large cat carries a small white kitten at its neck. It brings together two influences. From Henri Matisse comes the cut-out way of building a picture from flat, interlocking patches of colour; from the Bengali painter Jamini Roy, who drew on the bold brushwork of Kalighat pat and Bengal folk painting and painted cats himself, comes the heavy, decorative outline and the restrained, flat palette. The animal is set against a field of burnt orange, and the result is a playful and bold image of care.

The cat stands in profile, its head turned to the viewer with wide, green-ringed eyes and orange whiskers, and the kitten hangs from its mouth, looking out with matching round eyes. The body is divided into looping bands of black, turquoise, saffron and cream, ending in a long, ribbon-like tail that curls up the right side. Cream brush marks sweep across the ground, and small saffron leaf shapes float around the animal.

Burnt orange, black, turquoise, saffron and cream make a warm, high-contrast palette, with the cream strokes at the edges giving the picture a dry, painterly rim. The flat, patterned planes echo cut-paper forms, while the visible brushwork keeps it handmade in feeling. The animal's decorated body gives the composition its rhythm. The long tail forms a calligraphic curve that balances the small kitten at the upper left.