About the company

Calcutta Art Studio was established in 1878

With an intention to publish and sell Mythological pictures in a style of its own, originated by Sri Annadaprasad Bagchi, along with four of his better students, namely, Sri Nabo Coomar Biswas,Sri Phanibhushan Sen, Sri Krishna Chandra Pal and Sri Jogendranath Mukhopadhyay. Sri Annadaprasad Bagchi was appointed as the Headmaster of the Govt. School of Art in 1879 and had to leave his pupils. The others continued till 1910, when two of the partners, Sri Phanibhusan Sen and Sri Jogendranath Mukhopadhyay, withdrew their stake in the Company, In 1920 Sri Nabo Coomar Biswas was left alone, as Sri Krishna Chandra Pal declared to leave his old friend and partner.
In the same year (1920) the Company's status became a Sole - proprietorship one, as the ownership was transferred to Sri Sudhir Ranjan Biswas, the youngest son of Sri Nabo Coomar Biswas, However, Nabo Coomar continued as an active member of the Company and helped his son to function it smoothly. Thereafter, the Company became a commercial Printing house, using modern Letterpress machine, Gradually, by middle of the Century, the press was transformed into an Offset Printing house. In 1965 the status of the Company was changed once again to that of Private Limited Company with 7 Shareholders including 2 Directors headed by Sri Sudhir Ranjan Biswas as Managing Director.
At present the Company has 15 Shareholders and 3 Directors namely : Sri Shubhojit Biswas, Sri Subrata Biswas and Sri Sayantan Biswas The current activity of the Company is printing of multicolour Books, Packaging materials etc. and trading of used imported Printing machineries and imported offset machine spare parts. The company also undertakes installation and servicing of printing machines providing expert advises in press layout from the stupendously experienced team. CALCUTTA ART STUDIO still exists at the original address where it was incepted and treasures a few of the original copies of the art produced during that era.

Nobo Coomar Biswas
Founder Calcutta Art Studio Pvt. Ltd.

Reference. of the date of establishment:"ANNADA JIBANT" published in Bengali year 1314.Newspaper : BENGALI & HINDU PORTRAIT The approx. date of publication of these pictures were between 1878 & 1905. Reference can be found in the catalogue of exhibition titled " RAJ INDIA AND BRITISH 1602-1947" organised by India Office Library, London, held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, between 19th October 1990 and 19th March 1991.