Valmiki with Lav and Kush by Jamini Roy
Titled Autumn Palette, the auction featured 63 works, including paintings and sculptures. An untitled 1981 work on The Baul/Devotional Mystic, rendered in warm saffron and ochre tones, depicts a wandering minstrel. Another untitled 1989 pen-and-ink work on graph paper portrays a Kabuliwala in Pyne’s signature dense cross-hatching.
“Autumn Palette was aimed at both seasoned patrons and new collectors entering the world of Indian art,” said Gautam Das, director of Eye Within Art, established in 1999 and regarded as one of India’s oldest e-commerce art platforms. The collection was displayed for two days at a luxury property, giving patrons, collectors and art enthusiasts an opportunity to view the works before bidding began. Conceived as a hybrid experience, the auction combined a curated physical preview with a global digital bidding platform, enabling worldwide participation. Among the highlights was a panoramic narrative panel by national treasure artist Jamini Roy, executed in tempera on board. The horizontal composition depicts a sacred hermitage assembly with Valmiki, flanked by Lav and Kush. Two rare Pyne works also drew attention. A print by Daniell, depicting a scene near Srinagar, stood out as an important example of early topographical printmaking.
Kolkata: Works by modern and contemporary masters, such as Ganesh Pyne, Sunil Das, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Dhirendranath Brahma and Sanjay Bhattacharya, along with Bengal School legend Jamini Roy and 18th-century English landscape artist Thomas Daniell, went under the hammer at an online auction organised by Kolkata-based Eye Within Art on Wednesday.