Nationality Indian/Bengali Known for Folk dance, Painting | Died 1969 | |
Pratima Devi (1893–1969) was an Indian Bengali artist, most famous for her relationship and collaboration with Rabindranath Tagore.
Pratima Tagore studied art under painter Nandalal Bose and Rabindranath Tagore, her father-in-law. Rabindranath encouraged her to pursue her artistic talents. She exhibited her work at the Indian Society of Oriental Art, run by the Tagores, from 1915 onwards. She then moved to Paris, where she studied the Italian "wet fresco" method.
In India, she was in charge of the dance curriculum at the dance school founded by Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan. She is credited as one of the pivotal influences that shaped Tagore's little-known dance-dramas.
Early life, marriage and death
Pratima Devi was born in India in 1893, before the partition of India and Pakistan. She was first married to Nilanath Mukhopadhyay as a child bride. When Mukhopadhyay died, Rabindranath Tagore arranged the 17 year old Pratima's marriage to his son, Rathindranath Tagore. Rathindranath and Pratima had one adopted daughter. They divorced after Rabindranath Tagore's death in 1941. Pratima died in 1969.