Grandfather Artist S.H.Godbole

Mumbiram’s grandfather artist Shankar Hari Godbole, S.H.Godbole, was the leading watercolor landscape painter of his times, taught art at Pune’s St.Vincent High School between 1910-1942. In the 1930s he became the secretary of the Pune branch of the Bombay Art Society. S.H.Godbole was a close friend and associate of Chitrakalacharya N.E. Puram, whose forte was watercolor portraiture. Artist Puram and Godbole were two important influences on the young child Mumbiram. His grandfather was Mumbiram’s living example of an artist who had devoted his life to art. There could not have been any better art school than learning from that master himself. In the article “Search of Art that transcends Culture”, published in Marathi in Ravivar Sakal by Mumbiram in 1985 that early influence is described as very touching and idealistic episode in Mumbiram’s life.

In the article “In Search of Art that transcends Culture” Mumbiram describes that early influence of his grandfather artist, S.H.Godbole:

“He produced most of his masterpieces in this late period of his life and I was fortunate enough to be a witness to it all. All my sweet memories of childhood revolved around my grandfather’s house. He was a very gentle man and never lost his childlike innocence. He was fond of collecting birds and animals. He surrounded himself with a large family that included peacocks, doves, ducks, chicken, turtles, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, etc. Every room of his house was full of paintings. He also had a very large collection of prints and cuttings out of magazines of the works of great masters of the past. All these he had meticulously pasted into oversized albums. Finding treasures in the junk market was another of his passions. For my child’s mind his house was indeed a living fantasy. Inside the house he had rare china porcelain statues, brass cannons and trinkets. Outside the house he had a variety of trees-jamool, tamarind, sandalwood, mango, guava. There were birds in the trees and fish in the streams. The sun would rise, the clouds would gather, the grass would grow, the cattle would rest under trees. I watched my grandfather depicting all this in his paintings. Could there have been a better institute that I could have learned art at ?” (Mumbiram, 1985, “In Search of Art that transcends Culture”, Ravivar Sakal)

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