Hasina Khanam has been mentioned as the first Muslim woman artist in the Charitabhidhan published by Bangla Academy. Some watercolors and sketches done by her were published in Sawgat, Basumati etc. journals. Her place of birth and death and the date of her expiry is unknown. Protima Devi was born in the home of her maternal uncles. Her father was Sheshendrabhushan Chattapadhyay and mother Binoyini Devi. Her maternal grandfather was Gunendranath Tagore. Gaganendranath, Samarendranath and Abanindranath were her maternal uncles and Sunayani Devi was her aunt. She was married to Rabindranath's son Rathindranath and she later learnt painting at 'Bichitra' established by Rabindranath. She went on to train under Nandalal Bose. She was dearly loved by the poet Rabindranath and traveled to many countries with him. As a result, the concept she got about the international world of art played a particularly significant role in her later life as an artist. She learnt fresco painting, ceramics and batik in Paris. She had a show in London in 1935. However, she is given greater importance for her contribution to Santiniketan than her work as an artist. She designed stages for plays and costumes in her original style. She was particularly proficient in producing characters for Rabindranath's plays. She developed her artistic personality through dance and music. Though her early paintings evidence Japanese influence, later she painted in the style of the Bengal School. She took the illustrative mode of the Bengal School to its natural culmination (fig. 1.13). She continued her individual experiments in applied art. According to Kishore Chatterjee she suppressed her creativity as an illustrator due to herd emotion to Santiniketan. Shanta Devi was born in Kolkata. Her father was Ramananda Chatterjee editor of the journals Prabasi, Modern Review and Bishal Bharat and her mother was Monorama Devi. She began to write and paintfrom her childhood due to the family environment. She learnt painting under Abanindranath and Nandalal Bose. Later on in Santiniketan she studied painting supervised by Nandalal. There she also studied the technique of oil painting under Andre Karpelles. Shanta Devi painted in the Indian style but the subject she selected reflected her originality (fig. 1.12).