(1894 - 1948) Born in 1894, Hemendranath Mazumdar was a renowned and thriving painter of the European academic style in the Kolkata of 1920s. In 1929, Mazumdar founded the ‘Indian Academy of Art’ at his own residence in Kolkata. In 1931, he was invited by the Maharaja of Kashmir to work in the palace, and was later officially appointed ‘Court Painter’ of the Maharaja of Patiala. During this period of his career he executed many oil paintings that still hang in the courts of many Rajasthani princely states like Jodhpur and Bikaner. After Independence, in 1947, Hemendranath was invited to paint a mural to decorate the All India Exhibition, in which he excelled all his previous work. He painted its panels with several scenes of the life in Bengal he grew up with. Painting this large mural drained much of the old artist’s health, and after a year, in 1948, he passed away, leaving only an amazing heritage of works behind for his admires.