tour 3 of 8
The Art of Peace: Paintings by the poet Rabindranath Tagore
Postcard, drawing by Rabindranath Tagore
Many people are familiar with Tagore's
poetry and songs, which are his best-known work, but he was also
interested in science, and wrote about politics, philosophy and
music. He was also an
artist.
It wasn't
until he was aged sixty that Tagore took up painting, an artistic
endeavour which started as doodling on the pages he used to write
poetry on. He began working in coloured ink and his early sketches
typically have writing alongside them, the pictures merging with
the words.
Tagore drew on
whatever came to hand. The doodle displayed here was done on the
back of a postcard, which is stamped with the address - Oakdale,
Alvechurch, Nr Birmingham - of the Birmingham Quaker settlement
where Tagore stayed briefly in 1930.