Paritosh Sen

Paritosh Sen was born in Dacca, now Dhaka, Bangladesh, and developed an early interest in art through the Bengali art journal Prabasi. He later moved to Madras to study art. Initially influenced by Indian artistic idioms, Sen’s approach evolved after encountering reproductions of works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and other European masters. In 1942, he participated in the only exhibition of the Calcutta Group, of which he was a founding member. His visit to Paris in 1949 brought him into direct contact with European art, including a meeting with Pablo Picasso. Returning to India in 1954, he created works inspired by everyday life and the socio-political changes of West Bengal. Sen also wrote extensively on art and received the French L’Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Lalit Kala Ratna in 2004. He passed away in Kolkata in 2008.