Signed lower left

Oil on board

13.5 x 9 In

Prahlad Karmakar was a classically trained artist from Calcutta (now Kolkata), known for his command of academic realism and portraiture. Trained at the Government College of Art & Craft, where he later returned as faculty, he was recognised for his skilled rendering of human form and was commissioned to paint British officials, princely families and local patrons. His studio became a space for rigorous study, including nude portrait sessions — an unconventional and progressive practice in colonial Bengal.

Karmakar died shortly before India’s independence. In the civil unrest and rioting that followed, his residence was divided and his studio attacked. Many works were destroyed by fire; only a limited number survived.

The present painting of a Himalayan boy is among the known surviving works from this period, representing the naturalistic approach that defined his practice and contributed to his reputation as one of the accomplished realist painters of his generation.

Provenance - Private Collection, Kolkata