Which one of the following artworks was hailed by Sister Nivedita as t

Which one of the following artworks was hailed by Sister Nivedita as the ‘first masterpiece of Indian art’?

Bharat mata by Abanindranath Tagore
Arjuna and Subhadra by Raja Ravi Varma
Sita in Captivity in Lanka by Abanindranath Tagore
Sati by Nandalal Bose
This question was previously asked in
UPSC CAPF – 2022
The correct answer is A) Bharat mata by Abanindranath Tagore.
Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda and a keen observer and promoter of Indian art, highly praised Abanindranath Tagore’s painting ‘Bharat Mata’. She saw it as the embodiment of the national spirit and hailed it as the ‘first masterpiece of Indian art’.
Abanindranath Tagore painted ‘Bharat Mata’ in 1905 during the Swadeshi movement. The painting depicts a saffron-clad woman as Bharat Mata (Mother India), holding symbolic objects like a book, sheaves of paddy, a rosary, and a piece of white cloth, representing Shiksha (education), Anna (food), Diksha (spiritual knowledge), and Vastra (clothing), respectively. It became an iconic image of the nationalist movement. Raja Ravi Varma’s works, while popular, were influenced by Western techniques and themes. Nandalal Bose was another prominent artist of the Bengal School, but ‘Bharat Mata’ by Abanindranath is specifically associated with Sister Nivedita’s famous praise.