A hand-written postcard from Bengali artist Mukul Dey (1871-1951) to the Indian writer and...

A hand-written postcard from Bengali artist Mukul Dey (1871-1951) to the Indian writer and founder of the influential Bengal school of art and painter Abanindranath Tagore (1861-1941), with an ink wash sketch of a tree to one side, the reverse addresses to Tagore in Calcutta and with postage stamp from 2 July 1915, framed, 12.5 x 9cm. 

Mukul Chandra Dey (Bengali 23 July 1895 – 1 March 1989) was one of five children and a student of Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan and is considered as a pioneer of drypoint-etching in India. The entire family of Mukul Dey had artistic talents, the brother Manishi Dey was a well-known painter, and his two sisters, Annapura and Rani Chanda, were accomplished in arts and crafts as well.

Dey was the first Indian artist to travel abroad for the purpose of studying printmaking as an art and travelled with Tagore to Japan in 1916. Dey studied under Yokoyama Taikan and Kanzan Shimomura at Tokyo and Yokohama. At Yokohama, Rabindranath Tagore and Mukul Dey lived as guests of Japanese silk-merchant Tomitaro Hara at his famous residential complex Sankeien, enjoying a rare opportunity to study classical Chinese and Nihonga style Japanese paintings and especially the masterpieces of Sesshu Toyo.

From Japan, Dey left to study in America, learning the technique of etching under James Blanding Sloan and Bertha Jaques in Chicago, to whom Dey was introduced by American artist Roi Partridge and his wife Imogen Cunningham. Mukul Dey remained a life-member of Chicago Society of Etchers. On his return to India in 1917, Dey concentrated on creating etchings as a fine art. He also supported himself through making portrait drawings of the rich and famous, and turned these into etchings. In 1920 Dey once again travelled abroad for the purpose of study, this time learning etching and engraving under Frank Short and Muirhead Bone. He studied at both the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal College of Art in London. At Slade School of Art Mukul Dey was a student of Professor Henry Tonks.

An exhibition of Dey's drawings and paintings were shown, including ten copies of paintings at Ajanta and 1 at the Bagh Caves, courtesy of Lady Grant, at 59 Onslow Square, London, on 4 February 1924. His work had already been shown at the Royal Academy and the New English Art Club

Mukul Dey's only daughter Manjari was later married to Shantanu Ukil, a leading painter of the Bengal School of Art.