"Bride and Two Companions"

“Bride and Two Companions” is a painting by the Indian artist Jamini Roy. He studied formal art at the Government School of Art in Calcutta, India where he learned of western art. Jamini Roy became famous as a portrait painter in the European tradition. However, he was later inspired by the local folk art and rejected the western style. The folk art inspiration can be seen in the painting “Bride and Two Companions.”

This particular painting is very flat and is heavily outlined, especially on the face. The eyes of the three women stand out because they are so long and narrow. Also, the white colors of the eyes contrast with rest of the painting which contains very bright colors. The eyes are also so long that they go beyond the outline of the face. The top part of the painting, especially the face is very flat. The bottom part seems less flat. This may be due to the fact that the layering of the sari shows some depth.

Also the saris of each of the three women contain a maroon color. This color is found on the edges of each of the saris. On the characters in the back, the maroon color on their saris is more prominent than the character in the center. There is also some maroon color on the sari on the character in the center however that brown color is more diffused with the pattern with the black lines. The maroon color is also present in the background above the heads of each of the three women.

From looking at the painting, it may seem as if each of the three characters is different. However, if you look closely, you can see that the three women are identical. The two things that vary in each of the women are their sari color and their skin tone. Also as far as I can see, each of the three women are wearing and holding their saris the same way. Roy made the woman in the center with the darkest skin tone and with the darkest color of sari. Also the character in the center is painted in another painting of Jamini Roy, “Mother and Child.”

I really enjoyed looking at this painting. Roy portrays a traditional woman without the artificial beauty and the mythological background. The traditional aspects of the characters are portrayed in their sari and their jewelry and also by how they wear their sari and their jewelry.