The Bullock Cart

ca. 1950

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Srimati’s scenes of rural life are both tender and immediate, revealing an empathy born of her experiences of the culture of self-reliance nurtured by Gandhi’s anti-British swadeshi movement. This political agenda promotes the nobility of labor, a theme beloved of Edwardian artists and given a nationalist edge by Indian artists of the Bengal School such as Ramkinkar Baij, Nandalal Bose, and D. P. Roy Choudhury. The Bullock Cart epitomizes this celebration of Indian rural life. The high perspective, affording the viewer a vantage into the covered cart that carries the driver’s family, elevates the work above the descriptive.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

References

Title: The Bullock Cart
Artist: Y. G. Srimati (Indian, 1926–2007)
Date: ca. 1950
Culture: India (Chennai)
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Dimensions: Image: 12 7/8 × 16 3/8 in. (32.7 × 41.6 cm)
Mat: 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Lent by Michael Pellettieri
Curatorial Department: Asian Art