A Family Picnic

Dating back to circa 1956, this is a reverse glass painting from southern India, by artist Nirmmala. An excerpt from page 227 of the book ‘Reverse Glass Painting in India’ by Professor Anna L. Dallapiccola, describes the painting as:
“…This painting/collage was probably commissioned by the same family of the person with the memorial portrait. The whole family enjoys an outing in a landscape probably inspired by European postcards. Trees and shrubs populated by colourful birds grow around a lake fed by a distant waterfall-issuing from nowhere - and on the left is a church. A small bay separates the two groups: the older generation is accommodated on the right and the younger generation is on the left. Their faces have all been cut out from photographs whereas the artist has painted their clothes and other appurtenances.
The elderly gentleman sits on a rock with his hand lightly resting on a stick while his wife sits by the lakeshore and dips her feet in the water. On the left is their son (?) standing near a tree, with a newspaper in his hand, his wife (?) surrounded by a large tiffin box, a water container, a steel glass, and their three children. The baby is in his mother's arms, the little girl sits on a rock near the water, unmindful of a goose near her, while her brother, dressed in what seems to be a uniform, walks across the grass looking back out of the picture. He has lost his peaked cap, which lies on the ground. The painting is pervaded by an eerie feeling and the spatial gap between the generations does not convey the relaxed mood of a family picnic, but reflects the hierarchical order that ruled family life.”