Andrée Karpelès (1885-1956) Painting India Project Advertising Royal Ceylon Tea Art Deco

A favorite set of four gouaches, signed by the artist Andrée Karpelès.

These four gouaches appear to be advertising projects for Royal Ceylon Tea. In the Art Deco style, they are in excellent condition, with vibrant colors.

The four paintings are beautifully framed and protected under glass, forming a very decorative set.

Works by Andrée Karpelès are rare on the market.

Frame dimensions: 41.5 x 31.5 cm
Dimensions visible: 32 x 25 cm

Andrée Karpelès (Paris, 1885 - Grasse, 1956)

Andrée Karpelès (1885-1956) was an important figure in the promotion of contemporary Indian art in France. Growing up between Calcutta and Paris, she developed a passion for South Asia, shared with her sister Suzanne, a future Indologist. Suzanne Karpelès (1890-1968) focused more on Cambodia and joined the École française d’Extrême-Orient in 1922 before becoming the curator of the Royal Library of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Andrée Karpelès, on the other hand, pursued an artistic career and dedicated herself early on to representing Indian landscapes and scenes from daily life. From 1906, she exhibited almost every year at the Salon National des Beaux-Arts, the Salon d’Automne, and the Salon des Indépendants, where several of her works were acquired by the state. In 1908, at the International Industrial Exhibition in Toulouse, she presented an oil painting titled Sur la Terrasse. Indes, now housed at the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac. In 1910, she undertook a trip around India, leading to her first solo exhibition at the Galerie des Artistes Modernes in Paris. She quickly established herself as an observer and translator of India in the French art scene.

During her travels, she met the Tagore family in Calcutta and interacted with members of the new Bengal School of painters, particularly Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951), the leader of the movement. This Bengal School emerged as a counter to British colonial dominance and the Western academic art taught in government-run art schools set up during the British Raj in the 1850s. Its artists emphasized their Indian cultural heritage and advocated for a return to traditional techniques and motifs. Andrée Karpelès’ interactions with these pioneers of modern Indian art greatly influenced her artistic practice and her perspective on the country. She expressed her support for them in 1914 during the 22nd Exhibition of French Orientalist Painters at the Grand Palais. Associated with the Indian Society of Oriental Art, she helped exhibit Bengal School artists in Paris for the first time, including the Tagore brothers, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath (1867-1938), and Nandalal Bose (1882-1966).

In 1920, Andrée Karpelès met the poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) in Paris, with whom she formed a friendship. Two years later, he invited her to stay at the Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, Bengal, where she taught painting and woodcut at Kala-Bhavan, the Fine Arts Department, alongside several members of the Bengal School. Founded by Tagore, the institution was a leading center of avant-garde contemporary art in India, breaking away from British-influenced schools by focusing on Bengali artistic traditions.
Andrée Karpelès' friendship with the Tagores continued in 1930 when she organized Rabindranath Tagore's first exhibition in France at the Pigalle Gallery.

From 1920, Andrée Karpelès also worked as an illustrator and translator for the Bossard publishing house, known in the French Indianist community. She translated and illustrated Indian literary texts for their two oriental collections: Les Classiques de l’Orient and La Petite Collection Orientaliste.
Together with her husband Carl Adalrik Högman (1874-1958), she founded the Chitra publishing house, which published its first book, L'Inde et son âme : écrits des grands penseurs de l'Inde contemporaine, in 1928 as part of the Feuilles de l'Inde collection. This reflected the publishers’ goal to give a voice to contemporary India, involving several Indian authors. Following this first work, Chitra published Indian tales, including those by Rabindranath and Abanindranath Tagore, thus becoming a key reference for French-speaking readers of these two authors.

We are constantly looking for works by Andrée Karpelès, so please feel free to contact us.

The photos are taken in natural light.
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