Born on August 21, 1910, Narayan Shridhar Bendre or N S Bendre, as he is famously known, belonged to a family originally from Pune that had moved to Indore in the wake of the famine of 1876. Bendre’s art education began in 1929 at the Indore School of Art, established by the artist D D Deolalikar. The training at the Indore school placed special emphasis on observing nature in its altering forms. Beginning with subtle techniques of using pastels, the students gradually progressed to more versatile and complex mediums like gouache, watercolour and oil.

Another crucial aspect of the curriculum was to refine the ability to perceive and capture the shifting qualities of light as it transformed through the hours of day and night. This approach also intended to revitalise the students’ colour sensibilities with hues inspired by modernist movements and the kaleidoscopic vibrancy of the Indian landscape in bold sweeping swaths.

In 1933, Bendre completed his art diploma from Bombay (now Mumbai) and also moved to the metropolis. He had simultaneously pursued his B.A. degree from Agra University through the Holkar College in Indore, which he completed in 1934. Once in Bombay, Bendre was joined by his fellow artists from Indore, and the group— including G M Solegaonkar, D J Joshi, and M S Joshi—came to be informally known as the ‘Indore Painters.’ Coming into the limelight suddenly around 1934 with their distinct styles, the group also became a catalyst for brightening the palette of the art scene in Bombay. While continuing the tradition of open-air paintings of the earlier period, these artists introduced completely new aspects to their practices, drawn from emerging modernist movements.

Spectators and critics alike were captivated by their broad, bold brushstrokes. They also took notice of the selection of non-conventional brilliant colours that were not generally used, as well as the omission of unnecessary details to simplify the form. Bendre and the others did not confine themselves to the rigid principles of academic realism and brought a new perspective to the art world in Bombay. Their works expressed a strong inclination towards experimenting with the arranging of forms and spatial dynamics with the medium of watercolour in an opaque manner.

In fact, before this, Indians had hitherto seen little to no Impressionist influence, which combined the segmentation of colour with the effects of the atmosphere, especially sunlight.

But true to his nature, Bendre moved away from this tradition by exaggerating his hues and introducing black into his palette, a move borrowed from the Expressionist tendencies of the time. This evolution seems to have been partially influenced by the styles of Central European émigrés in Bombay during the 1930s, including Walter Langhammer, who brought a hint of vibrant Expressionism to the Indian artistic planes, and Oskar Kokoschka, whose panoramic cityscapes inspired the application of pure hues. Similarly, Bendre replaced the mellow tones prevalent in the Indore group style and switched to vivid colours. With this, he brought a fresh breath to Indian landscape painting and also became a source of inspiration for the artists of the succeeding generation, especially S H Raza, who adopted similar techniques in the 1940s.

The year 1934 was an important year for Bendre. He won his earliest prize, the Silver Medal from the Bombay Art Society. This success was one of the first indications of Bendre’s emergence as a master colourist in the history of Modern Indian Art. In December 1934, works by Bendre and his contemporaries were showcased at Burlington Galleries in London in an exhibition titled ‘Modern Art In Western India.’ Bendre’s growing reputation continued to flourish through the early decades of the 1930s. The year 1935 recorded another important achievement, when his work won the coveted Governor’s Prize from the Bombay Art Society.