Kanai Lal Ghosh

Kanai Lal Ghosh kept a tiny, cluttered studio above a tea stall in Calcutta, where he painted the same crumbling alley at noon every day, no matter the weather. He’d set up his easel, smoke bidis, and wait for the light to do its thing, then chase it across the canvas until the third cup of chai kicked in. Why? He said the alley knew him better than his own reflection.

Look for his Untitled (c. 1920) in the Gallery Tiles bundle: a sun-bleached lane where the heat shimmers off wet bricks like a half-remembered dream.