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Primary sourcePhotograph1909

Portrait of Rabindranath Tagore

1909

A 1909 photograph of Tagore in Kolkata, taken shortly before he achieved international fame.

This photograph is the standard surviving likeness of Tagore from shortly before his rise to international fame.

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Black and white profile-angle photograph of a bearded man with wavy hair, wearing a draped light robe, looking to the left against a plain grey background.
Rabindranath Tagore in Kolkata, 1909.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white photograph of Rabindranath Tagore taken in Kolkata in 1909, showing him in profile with a beard and wavy hair, wearing a draped light robe.

Why it matters

Taken just a few years before Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, this photograph shows him as he appeared before he became internationally famous. It has become one of the standard images used to represent him.

Look closer

  • What impression does this photograph give of Tagore, and how might that have shaped his public image?
  • Why do certain photographs become the "standard" way we picture a historical figure?
  • What does a formal portrait like this choose to show and leave out about a person's life?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Rabindranath Tagore on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Rabindranath Tagore sources

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Title page of the book Gitanjali (Song Offerings) by Rabindranath Tagore, a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bengali, with an introduction by W. B. Yeats, published by Macmillan and Co., London, 1913.Book

Primary source

Song Offerings

Rabindranath Tagore · 1912

Black and white photograph of Rabindranath Tagore leaving a building, Sigtuna, May 1921.Photograph

Primary source

Tagore Leaves the Sigtuna Foundation

Bertil Waldén · May 1921

Title page of Gitanjali (Song Offerings) by Rabindranath Tagore, a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bengali, with an introduction by W. B. Yeats. Macmillan and Co., Limited, London, 1913.Book

Primary source

Gitanjali

Rabindranath Tagore · 1910

Black and white photograph of Rabindranath Tagore standing with K.B. Westman and M. Björkqvist, Sigtuna, May 1921.Photograph

Primary source

Tagore with K.B. Westman and M. Björkqvist

Bertil Waldén · May 1921

Piano sheet music score titled 'Jana Gana Mana' by Rabindranath Tagore, in D minor/F major key with 4/4 time, tempo 96, two staves (treble clef) with dynamics like f, p, ff and a fermata at the end.Document

Primary source

Jana Gana Mana

Rabindranath Tagore · 11 December 1911

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