Calcutta Then And Now (Hardcover)

historical association may soon turn into rubble.. The new concrete slabs of monstrous dimension are popping up very fast.
Our indefatigable artist Rathin Mitra has been documenting methodically the changing faces of Calcutta, which strengthened some thought for Calcutta and love for the ciy.
Born on the 26th July 1926, Howarh, he comes of a highly cultured and artistically inclined family of Calcutta. His father, the late Rai Bahadur Jatindranath Mitra, was in civil service and himself was a poet and writer. For his boyhood art activities, Rathin Mitra is much indebted to his father's kind encouragement. He studied at the Government School of Art, Calcutta for four years. He had his first one-man-show at the Chowringhee Y.M.C.A. in the year 1949. He taught Fine Arts in several Public Schools in the country since 1949-The Daly College, Indore, Lawrence School, Sanawar and St. Paul's School, Darjeeling. He also taught for a year at Bryanston Public School, Dorset, England. Finally he joined the Doon School, Dehra Dun as Head of the Art Department. After having served more than 25 years at Doon Rathin Mitra has settled in Calcutta and has already done over 400 remarkable drawings of the city's historic landmarks. Rathin Mitra acts as an artist-historian who captures the charm and beauty of the silent witness of a bygone era and of the present turbulent times, in his extremely absorbing line drawings.
Besides many shows here and abroad, Mr. Mitra is the first living artist to have exhibited at the Victoria Memorial Hall along with the old European masters like the Daniells, Charles D'Oyly, William Hodges, J.B. Fraser, Wood and so on. He has been awarded a fellowship by the University Grants Commission to work on a project to document the architectural edifices associated with Rabindranath Tagore in India and Bangladesh.