When Rabindranath Tagore took to painting in the late 1920s he was approaching seventy and was already recognised as one of the world's remarkable men. He made contributions in every field- artistic, educational, religious and political. Although entirely untrained, he was able to draw upon his wealth of experience and imagination to make works that startled both Indian and western artists and critics of the time with their freshness and directness of feeling. They seemed to bear little relationship to the rest of his oeuvre or to Indian or western art. By his death in 1941 Tagore nad produced over two thousand paintings and drawings, several hundred of which merit being placed beside those of major twentieth-century artists. Considering the late start, this makes for an astonishing output of great fecundity', writes Satyajit Ray in his Foreword. 'It is important to stress that he was uninfluenced by any painter, eastern or western. His work does not stem from any tradition but is truly original. Whether one likes it or not, one has to admit its uniqueness. Personally, I feel it occupies a place of major importance beside his equally formidable output of novels, short stories, plays, essays, letters and songs? Illustrated with over 175 drawings and paintings in colour and black and white.