A. R. Chugtai (b.1897,d.1975)

Born in Lahore in undivided India, Chughtai studied at Lahore's Mayo School of Art. He was a figurative painter greatly influenced by Mughal miniature painting, Europe's early 20th century Art Nouveau Movement and Japanese art. His style displays a strong sense of line, scale and form. Chughtai was a printmaker, having studied the art in London. He illustrated several books with water colours and drawings. After India's partition, he was Pakistan's foremost painter.

The important element of Chughtai’s work is achieving a perfect harmony of line and expression. The delicate lines of Chughtai’s pictures are by no means insipid and shaky but firm and precise with a marvelous neatness and a most exactness of material. The figures of his paintings are lively and not merely beautiful designs. There are traces of emotion in the images and the gestures are with dramatic action. Chughtai was deeply fascinated by the facial expression of the figures of Mughal and Persian miniatures. His figures are mostly drawn in an attitude modified by the dignity of repose and tranquility. In Chughtai’s works there is a decorative element yet it is purely rational. The line work, the design element and the transparent layer of colours produce a pleasing atmospheric quality in their pictorial lyricism.