Rabindranath Tagore

Muirhead Bone

Sir Muirhead Bone was a Scottish printmaker and watercolor artist noted for his depictions of architectural subjects, city views, landscapes, and his work as a war artist in both the First and Second World Wars. Bone was the British government's first 'Official War Artist' of the First World War.

Bone also created several portraits, including this half length profile of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), a native of Calcutta, India, who became a leading Bengali poet, artist and musician. He was the first Asian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was knighted in 1915 by King George and rejected the honor in 1919. In addition to poetry, Tagore wrote fiction, drama, essays, songs, and two autobiographies.

Late in his life, after 1920, the year this drypoint was done, Taglore also created numerous paintings and drawings. Bone did this portrait from life, while Tagore was visiting his home "Byways" in Steep, Petersfield, England, which is located at the western edge of the Weald, at the foot of the Hangers of Hampshire, with the South Downs to the south.