Rabindranatah Tagore - Poet or Painter?

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), a poet, writer, novelist, playwright, composer, philosopher and educator, was the first Asian individual to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 for his book Gitanjali. Although he did not receive any formal training in art, at a late stage of his life, when he was over sixty years old, he took up painting. He started by doodling on the pages of his poetry manuscripts. He left over two thousand paintings and drawing, deeply rooted in fantasy. He did not seem to follow a particular style or school of painting, neither eastern nor western. Tagore’s paintings are unique and his contribution to the art of India remains very important till today.