Portrait of an old master

by ECB Wijeyesinghe

Today (March 1980), on the eve of the Big Match, let us begin the week by raising a rousing cheer to the oldest Old Thomian alive who makes another big hit which brings him closer and closer to the Century of this Century.

You may not believe it when you see his sprightly walk and hear his witty talk, but the truth is that Gate Mudaliyar A. C. G. S. Amarasekara is 97 today, and by the Magic of his Art has contrived to keep the minions of Anno Domini at bay, while hundreds of his contemporaries have succumbed and gone the way of all flesh. He first saw the light of day at Dodanduwa, south of the Bentota River, and the Mudaliyar is possessed of many admirable qualities. One of them is his capacity for friendship. Like Michelangelo, he never forgets the face of an old acquaintance.

Hopes

When he was born on March 2, 1883, his father, the pious and scholarly padre, the Rev. A. S. Amarasekara, and his maternal uncle, Canon G. B. Ekanayake, M.A., D.D., the eminent Anglican theologian, had high hopes that one day he would follow in their footsteps. But Doctors of Divinity were not able to shape his ends in the way they wanted, and he drifted headlong into Art.

Young Abraham Christopher Gregory Suriarachchi preferred the roses and raptures of the paint-pot to the lilies and languors of the pulpit. When the family moved to Moratuwa from the South, little ACGS was admitted to the Prince of Wales College, then under the baton of J. G. C. Mendis. The Mudaliyar will tell you that one of his earliest recollections is drawing pictures with his fingers on the golden sands of the Moratuwa beach. At school, too, he filled his slate with sketches, but what fascinated him immensely was the calligraphy of the Sinhala script.

The story is also told that young ACGS who was fond of drawing on walls once accompanied his father while he was calling on one of his parishioners – a fat lady. The child, they say, is father of the man, and ACGS was mischievous even then and full of wholesome fun. In order to keep his son quiet, the kindly padre put him in a corner behind a tall chair. When it was time to leave, the chair was removed and, lo and behold!, on the wall was a drawing – of the fat lady.

The realistic quality of the lady’s picture on the wall has been the hall-mark of the Mudaliyar’s work. It is a realism that he has captured in the thousands of portraits he has since painted of men and women in every stratum of society in Ceylon. Two of India’s greatest sons, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, also sat for him and their portraits have won international acclaim.

Dr. Tagore is often described as the Serene Sage of Shantiniketan, but he used to become impatient and restless when he was asked to sit quietly for his portrait. It had happened in India. It happened in Ceylon, too, in 1934 when the Poet was a guest at the Kollupitiya residence of Mrs. Helena Wijewardene, the grandmother of President Jayewardene. The old mansion, Sri Ramya, is now the home of the American Embassy.

Though he was somewhat reluctant to pose at first, Tagore was gently persuaded by the Mudaliyar to sit, but the painting had to be done while the Poet was at work. And so the artist pitched his easel in a corner of the study while men, women and children filed past the Sage in veneration, giving the impression that they were in the presence of a deity. All the while, Tagore took no notice of his hero-worshipers, until one man, bolder than the rest, used a psychological gimmick to attract his attention.

“Sir, I saw your paintings at the Paris Exhibition”, said the admirer, and for the first time, Tagore looked up and straightened in his chair. According to the Mudaliyar that was just the posture he wanted for the portrait. A splendid likeness was the result and it was eventually acquired for the New York World’s Fair. The purchase was made on the recommendation of Sir William Rothenstein of the National Gallery to represent Ceylonese painting.

Immediately after that the fat was in the fire and there was the usual uproar. Some so-called Nationalists protested that representative Ceylon art should be done in the Sigiriya manner. The Mudaliyar referred to this incident at the historic felicitation dinner on his 84th birthday when he said: “Just imagine, Ladies and Gentlemen, my painting our lady-politicians like the Sigiriya pin-up girls. Why, none of them have even that shape like an hour-glass. Some of them look as if the sand in their hour-glass had run down to the bottom – to the bottom of the hourglass I mean!”

As a piece of post-prandial wit the Mudaliyar’s speech was a masterpiece and worthy of the occasion, because in the audience was everybody who was anybody in Ceylon, from the Governor-General downwards.

Pupils

It was at this dinner that the Mudaliyar revealed that Sir John Kotelawala was one of his earliest pupils. It somehow got bruited about that Art consisted in the Pursuit of the Beautiful, and young John Lionel Kotelawala promptly sought admission to the Mudaliyar’s school. Sir John, it may be added, did not take to Art as a profession, but he never ceased to pursue the Beautiful. And, according to reliable sources, the Beautiful have not ceased to pursue Sir John.

The list of the Mudaliyar’s pupils who have taken to Art as a profession is formidable. They include painters, commercial artists, Art teachers and inspectors, but there are also many competent amateurs who practice Art for Art’s sake’s and are emotionally moved by it, at least during the week-end.

Through the Atelier or Amarasekara School of Art have passed at various times, some of the finest painting talent in the country including Justin Deraniyagala, Harry Pieris, Reggie Candappa, Donald Ramanayake, G. S. Fernando, Paul Deraniyagala, A. J. Ranasinghe, Edmund Blacker, Russell Gonsal and Amarasekara’s brilliant son, the versatile Douglas.

Among the long list of women students who have made their mark not only in Art, but in other fields as well, are Mrs. Saraswathie Rockwood, Mrs. S. H. Moosajee, Lady Vaithianathan, Mrs. M.W. M. de Silva, Bertha Jansz and Lilian Amarasekara. Every picture of the Gate Mudaliyar, like the advertisement for a popular cure for rheumatism, tells a story. The one in connection with his portrait of Mahatma Gandhi has a flavour of its own.

The Mudaliyar once revealed it to my friend Neville Weeraratne, an old “Observer” galley-slave like myself. It all happened at a time of intense political activity in the late twenties when reforms were in the offing and the Mahatma had come here to promote his khaddar campaign. There was a public reception to Gandhi in Colombo at which S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike acted as Master of Ceremonies.

The Mahatma was seated cross-legged on a table, while the Donoughmore Commissioners, who were then in Ceylon, sat at his feet. The Mudaliyar meanwhile was stalking the great man, armed with his brush and box of many colours. Working under great stress he managed to secure a likeness of the Mahatma who was very pleased with it. But he agreed to autograph it only on condition that the Mudaliyar, too, got into khaddar, because the object of his visit to Ceylon was to do a bit of propaganda for his movement.

ACGS, whose sartorial tastes are well-known, managed to wriggle out of the difficulty by saying that, as Gate Mudaliyar, he had to wear specific insignia, but he promised to promote the khaddar campaign. This portrait, a water-colour, autographed by the Mahatma himself in English and Gujerati, was acquired for the British nation, and I believe was hung in the Horniman Gallery after it was exhibited in Paris.

Magic

Even if he did not paint a single picture, the Gate Mudaliyar will be remembered by posterity for his artistry as The Gay Deceiver. Age has not been able to wither nor custom stale the infinite variety of his bag of tricks. He has been the centre of the Sri Lanka Magic Circle for the past 50 years and some of the most enthusiastic members at the circumference have been R. Bodinagoda, Brigadier C. P. Jayawardana. Earle H. Nicholas and Linden de Alwis.

Bodinagoda was one of the prime movers along with Dr. M. V. P. Peiris and the late lamented L. P. Goonetilleke, in the production of the magnificent Felicitation Volume which was presented on his 84th birthday. On that occasion, N. K. Choksy QC one of his pupils sent this message to the doyen of Ceylon Painters. It aptly summarizes the sentiments that are surging today in the hearts of his friends and admirers.

If from life you take the best,

And in life you keep the jest,

And if love you hold,

No matter how the years go by

No matter how your birthdays fly,

You are not old

(Excerpted from The Good Among The Best first published in March 1980)