Samir Ghosh working on portraits in his studio at home. Pictures by Anup Bhattacharya

The hundred odd paintings at Gallery No 6 of the State Archaeological Museum in Behala are no less than 400 years old. They were made in Raja Nabakrishna Deb’s era and some were copies of original paintings that once belonged to Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah. While the originals are in a museum in Delhi, the smaller versions are kept with care at the Behala museum. Artist and restorer Samir Ghosh had painstakingly restored these old paintings to their former glory.

While working on a painting of the gods, he found that the halo behind Chaitanya and other gods’ heads were made from real gold. To keep the painting as close to the original as possible, Ghosh rubbed off the gold from his finger ring on to the painting. “I used the gold from my ring and another chemical that we use to keep the original image in tact. Nothing that I used would be able to restore it to its original appearance though,” said Ghosh.

A passionate artist and restorer, Samir is well-known in the art fraternity for his work. The studio on the mezzanine floor of his house in Dharsa is stacked with paintings of Bal Thackeray, Mamta Banerjee, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Ishaant Sharma and other personalities. An 80-inch painting of Jyoti Basu is yet to be completed for Surya Kanta Misra’s personal collection.

Samir’s interest in restoration and preservation grew from his childhood when he made small figures out of clay and would keep them behind a diya full of oil in his ancestral home in Bagnan. “I would discover after many days that the figure was still intact. My father, Chandidas Ghosh, was a well-known freedom fighter. I would ask him how this happened and he said that anything kept in oil would never be destroyed. The idea of preservation had been playing on my mind since then,” said Samir.

He was a student of Indian Art College, but Samir would often visit the Government Art College to meet Chintamoni Kar, his guru in restoration, preservation and conservation. “Although I was not a student of his college, he would always help me out and answered my questions without hesitation,” said Samir. He later completed a course in sculptures and plastic art from Lalit Kala Academy.

His first job after graduation was with the Home Publicity Department of the state government. He designed the logo for the directorate of micro and small scale industries in 1961. He also made paintings for the Industrial Museum, which was established at Tala Park. Later, the museum shifted to Taratala. “I was sculpting a portrait of Vinobha Bhave at the museum in 1963 when Queen Elizabeth had visited Calcutta. She came to the museum on that day and watched me work closely. She wanted to shake my hand, but I had pushed my elbow forward saying that I had mud on my hands. She had smiled. This meeting had given me a lot of confidence,” said Samir. In the early 1960s, Samir joined as the first cartoonist in Anandabazar Patrika, he was also an illustrator of Rabibasaria.

A painting of Mahaprabhu that was restored by Ghosh

Samir has tried out various jobs, including working with the state fisheries department to being an art teacher in a school in Uttarpara for many years. He has restored paintings at Sahitya Parishad, Mahajati Sadan and the National Library as well. Samir has also designed the plan for the National History Museum in Delhi.

Among his own works, Samir had made a 36 feet long prehistoric painting at the Shivalik Fossil Park at Himachal Pradesh that was developed by the Geological Survey of India. “I did this painting after consulting several scientists and researchers from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany in Lucknow, Anthropological department of the National Museum and other universities,” said Samir, who likes to interpret art in relation to science and evolution.

Another 10 feet long painting of his on evolution of man is also there at the park. “This painting shows how humans evolved from the Proconsuls to modern man,” said Samir. For the past three years, Ghosh is preserving, repairing, restoring paintings at the West Bengal State Legislative Assembly. Last year, Ghosh curated an exhibition on the platinum jubilee of the Assembly. Titled ‘Bharat swadhinataye Banglar abadan’, the exhibition included sketches right from the first martyr of the Independence movement to how the Assembly was established and the various movements that had taken place here. “I had made sketches of freedom fighters, episodes from the freedom struggle and also provided a huge amount of information on the history of the freedom struggle,” said Ghosh.

Ghosh is presently working on a series on Tagore’s Geetanjali on water colour. “I like working with oil and water colour. In fact, I won my first award in college for a water colour painting which was later sold for Rs 30. I also like to do sculptures,” signed off Ghosh.

More about samir

• DoB: April 1, 1940
• Born in: Howrah
• Education: Diploma in Fine Arts and Graphic Arts
• Family: Son, daughter
• Loves: Reading
• Hates: Lies