The Flight of Lakshman Sen
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Watercolor |
| Current Location: | Collection of the Indian Society of Oriental Art (ISOA), Kolkata; reproduced in E. B. Havell’s Indian Sculpture and Painting (London: John Murray, 1908) and Chatterjee\'s Picture Albums. |
| Location History: | First exhibited in 1908 at the annual exhibition of the Indian Society of Oriental Art (ISOA) in Calcutta, where it was awarded a prize of ₹500. It was subsequently reproduced in E. B. Havell's Indian Sculpture and Painting (1908), The Modern Review (January 1909, Vol. V, No. 1, pp. 61–63), and Ramananda Chatterjee's Chatterjee's Picture Albums. |
Surendranath ganguly painted the flight of lakshman sen in 1908 this painting is also known as escape of raja lakshman sen at the time surendranath ganguly was one of abanindranath tagores students at the government school of art in calcutta the painting shows a moment from the history of bengal it captures the sena king lakshman sen leaving his palace at nadia after bakhtiyar khaljis sudden attack around 12031204 ce of a loud battle scene or a king running in fear surendranath ganguly chose to paint a quiet and serious moment the aged king lakshman sen is seen walking down a flight of stone stairs the stairs lead to a waiting boat on the river lakshman sen wears a dhoti and no heavy royal jewellery lakshman sen holds a stick to steady himself on the steps as lakshman sen walks lakshman sen turns his head slightly to look toward the palace gate this small gesture gives the scene an thoughtful feeling surendranath ganguly made this painting on paper surendranath ganguly used the bengal schools signature watercolour wash method surendranath ganguly layered browns greys and warm yellow tones over the paper this created a misty and dim background this atmosphere matches the mood of a morning or late evening escape when the flight of lakshman sen was shown at the indian society of oriental art exhibition in 1908 it won a cash prize of five hundred rupees the flight of lakshman sen was also praised by e b havell in his book indian sculpture and painting