Light and Legacy: Pre-modern Art and Plein Air Painting in Madras

Plein air painting—from the French en plein air, meaning in the open air=—is the practice of painting outdoors, directly from the landscape or subject, rather than within the confines of a studio. It emphasizes immediacy: the dance of natural light, changing atmospheric conditions, and the fleeting mood of a scene captured in real-time. Somehow, this approach found fertile ground in Madras, and a distinctive school of plein air painting emerged here quietly, compellingly, and now nearly forgotten.

 This exhibition seeks to rediscover and reframe that moment in Indian art history. From the 1940s to the 1960s, a number of artists in Madras embraced the plein air method: G.D. Paulraj, K.C.S. Paniker, S. Dhanapal, R. Krishna Rao, H.V. Ram Gopal, K. Sreenivasulu, G. D. Thyagaraj, G. D. Arulraj, and later R. Govindaraj and P. B. Surendranath. These artists captured the world around them—the beaches of Marina, the bustle of Parry’s Corner, the quiet dignity of temple towns—with vivid watercolours and expressive immediacy. But where did this visual language come from? Why was it so popular in Madras? And why has it been overlooked? To trace its lineage, we must return to the New Bengal School and

 its iconic figures: Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore,and Nandalal Bose. Their reimagining of Indian art emphasized lyricism, indigenous materials, and a sense of rootedness.

Among their students was D. P. Roy Chowdhury, who brought these ideas south when he took over as principal of the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras, in 1929.Roy Chowdhury’s influence was transformative. Though trained in

 the Bengal School’s ideals, his own practice leaned toward realism and physicality—scenes of labour, movement, and nature, rendered with striking observation. Under his charismatic leadership, Madras developed a distinctive pedagogical approach that encouraged students to step outside the studio, observe life firsthand, and engage with the landscape around them.

 In parallel, artists in Bombay—such as S.H. Raza, M.S. Joshi, N. S. Bendre and Walter Langhammer—were also exploring plein air techniques. At the Sir J.J. School of Art, watercolour painting was reinvigorated by exposure to European styles and supported by the growing demand for illustrations in commercial magazines and newspapers from the 1930s onwards. The vivid, realistic scenes that emerged—of streets, rivers, and architectural landmarks—reflected

 both artistic enquiry and commercial appeal.

 This exhibition, for the first time, brings together never-before-seen watercolours by Madras-based artists working in this plein air tradition. Paper-based, atmospheric, and full of life, these works trace an artistic movement that emerged from a hybrid of influences—Bengal’s nationalist modernism, Madras’ pedagogical shift, and the commercial-art boom of Bombay.Light and Legacy is an invitation to reconsider this pre-modern chapter in Indian art—not as a footnote, but as a vibrant moment of its own: grounded in observation, shaped by education, and alive with colour, light, and place This exhibition begins with a figure who bridged multiple artistic worlds: Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury (1899–1975). Trained in Calcutta under the pioneering modernists Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose, Roy Chowdhury inherited the intellectual and visual vocabulary of the New Bengal School, with its emphasis on Indian themes, spiritual lyricism, and a return to indigenous traditions of art-making. But unlike many of his contemporaries who leaned toward romanticized historicism, Roy Chowdhury was drawn to the physicality of form, the dignity of labor, and the dynamism of the everyday.

 In the late 1920s, when he moved to Madras to join the Government School of Arts and Crafts—becoming its principal—he carried with him the philosophical training of Santiniketan but adapted it to the brilliant tropical light, expansive coastal landscapes, and the local textures of life in the Madras Presidency. Roy Chowdhury’s work reflects a unique fusion of plein air observation and sculptural realism. His paintings and drawings reveal an intense sensitivity to light, movement, and musculature, often depicting working bodies, village life, and landscapes bathed in sun and shadow. He did not seek beauty in ornamentation, but in the truth of form and the spirit of place.

This exhibition traces how artists like Roy Chowdhury, shaped by nationalist art movements in Bengal, found new aesthetic possibilities in the South—merging personal vision, formal training, and the Madras landscape into a distinct school of artistic expression.