Mukul Dey

1895-1989

Mukul Dey was a student at Santiniketan. He went to Japan in
1916, and studied under artists Yokoyama Taikan and Kanzan
Shimomura. In 1920 Dey once again travelled abroad, this time
learning etching and engraving under Frank Short and Muirhead
Bone. He studied at both the Slade school of Art and the
Royal College of Art London. Dey was appointed the first Indian
Principal of the Government School of Art, Calcutta, in 1928
and kept the post until 1943. While there he was responsible for
starting a women’s section. The Mukul Dey Archives are housed
at Mukul Dey’s former home, named Chitralekha, at Santiniketan.
He was also the illustrator for many book projects; one of
his earliest was a scholarly book Shantiniketan: The Bolpur School
of Rabindranath Tagore, which he illustrated for in 1916. He was
also one of the artists asked by Jawaharlal Nehru to sketch the
emblems for the Government of India’s awards, including the
Bharat Ratna and the Padmashri.