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Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 1
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 2
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 3
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 4
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 5
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 6
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 7
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 8
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 9
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 10
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 11
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 12
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 13
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 14
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 15
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 16
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 17
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 18
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 19
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 20
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 21
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 22
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 23
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 24
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 25
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 26
Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964) Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam image 27
Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam pictured by Asit Kumar Haldar
Lot 30

Asit Kumar Haldar
(1890-1964)
Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam

1 – 10 September 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,792 inc. premium

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Asit Kumar Haldar (1890-1964)

Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam
Version of Edward Fitzgerald's first edition (1859) with twelve illustrations by Asit Kumar Haldar measuring 36 x 24.2 cm each (14 3/16 x 9 1/2 in).
The Indian Press Limited Allahabad, India.
Folio 37.7 x 27 x 35 cm (14 13/16 x 10 5/8 x 13 3/4 in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, UK.

Haldar was one of the foremost figures of the Bengal Renaissance, a movement that sought to reimagine Indian artistic identity in dialogue with both classical traditions and modern currents. A painter, educator, and innovator, Haldar was deeply committed to uniting poetry and the visual arts, producing a remarkable body of work that gave pictorial form to literature ranging from Tagore to ancient epics.

His series of illustrations for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam reflects this vision with particular sensitivity. Comprising twelve works, the series translates Khayyam's meditations on love, mortality, and the fleeting beauty of existence into imagery suffused with Mughal and Persian stylistic inflections. Haldar renders men and women in lyrical natural settings, their elongated forms, flowing garments, and decorative surroundings evoking the elegance of miniature traditions while imbuing them with a modern, romantic sensibility.

These illustrations exemplify Haldar's ability to bridge text and image, East and West, past and present. In giving form to the Rubaiyat, he not only interprets the verses but also extends their resonance, situating them within a uniquely Indian modernist idiom. The series stands as a testament to his central role in the Bengal Renaissance and to his lifelong pursuit of a synthesis between word, spirit, and image.

Additional information

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