At the Crossing (1917)
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Ink |
| Current Location: | Asian Art Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and National Gallery of Modern Art in India. |
| Location History: | Created in 1917 by Mukul Dey after his printmaking studies in America, multiple physical impressions of this drypoint etching were pulled from a single copper plate.A major public impression is housed in the permanent collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, which acquired it in 2019 as a gift from the Paul Marsh Pitman, Jr. collection.The artist's own archival prints and foundational materials are preserved at the Mukul Dey Archives at his former home (Chitralekha) in Santiniketan, West Bengal.Other signed impressions exist globally, occasionally moving between private collectors through international fine art auctions like Roseberys London. |
Mukul Dey's At the Crossing is a simple yet thought provoking work wherein he focuses on regular people going about their daily business, rather than focusing on any big event. The composition presents itself as though someone is watching road where everything else just stops for a bit. The painting with it people and landscape pauses the moment in time while telling a story, of something that's happening in everyday life. The work is special because of the artist's use of etching and drypoint. Dey creates diffferent shades of light and dark by making the lines thicker or thinner. The technizue allows him to add miniscule details, making the pictures feel atmospheric. Dey's work is also interesting because it combines his love for Indian subjects with techniques of Western printmaking. He uses traditional etching painting he learnt in from European art and makes them his own, creating a distinct and unique Indian style. By focusing on everyday mundane life in his art, he makes a big departure from the usual idealized images of courtly or mythological art. Dey shows that printmaking is not just about recording things but about capturing a mood or a feeling. In this way, a crossing is not just a physical movement, but a moment of reflection, a chance to observe the world around us and to express our own unique view of it.
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