The Government School of Art, Kolkata, was established in 1854 as one of the first major art schools in the British Empire, was founded with a clear vocational focus which were transformed over the years based on the changing requirements of the students and the market at large. It was within this framework that Bhunath Mukherjee enrolled in 1935 to study commercial art, beginning a journey that would shape his approach to painting.
By the late nineteenth century, the School had transformed into a key institution for the Bengali middle class, promoting art as both a respectable vocation and a viable career. Among the many disciplines taught, oil painting and realistic portraiture held special status. Life-size portraits in oil were viewed as the ultimate markers of artistic accomplishment and were widely showcased in fine art exhibitions.
The prestige of portraiture, in particular, drew inspiration from figures like Sir Joshua Reynolds, the celebrated founder of the Royal Academy. His example of social status, steady commissions, and financial success demonstrated how artistic skill could intersect with public recognition and economic opportunity, a model that deeply informed the professional ambitions of artists in colonial Bengal.
This legacy is most evident in the career of Annada Prasad Bagchi, an early student of the School whose mastery of oil portraiture earned him prestigious commissions, including portraits of prominent Bengali figures. In 1878, Bagchi founded the Calcutta Art Studio, which became a hub for producing lithographic prints of eminent personalities and cultural imagery. These mass-produced images shaped the popular visual culture in Bengal, forming a lineage of visual references that artists like Bhunath Mukherjee would later engage with in their own portrait practice, creating a dialogue between academic training, commercial practice, and the cultural memory of a city.