Asit Kumar Haldar was born in the year 1890 in Jorasanko Rabindranath Tagore was his maternal grandmother’s brother, while his grandfather Rakhaldas Haldar and his father Sukumar Haldar were accomplished painters as well He initiated his academics at the Government School of Art, Calcutta in 1904 when he was fourteen years old He learned sculpting from famous Bengali artists such as Jadu Pal and Bakkeswar Pal, as well as trained under Leonard Jennings Over a period of time he became an important assistant to Rabindranath Tagore and was also a propagandist of the Bengal renaissance From 1909 to 1911 he was stationed at Ajanta documenting the paintings on the frescoes This was a joint expedition that he undertook alongside with Lady Herringham, the motive of the expedition being to expose cave art to a wider Indian audience In 1921, he undertook another expedition, this time to the Bagh Caves and his reflections on the art there indicate quite a few surrealistic depictions Asit Kumar Haldar was an art teacher at Santiniketan, between the years 1911 – 1915 and was also appointed as the principal of the Kala Bhavan School from 1911 to 1923 In 1923, he went on a study tour through England, France and Germany On his return, he became Principal of the Maharaja’s School of Arts and Crafts, Jaipur following which he shifted to the Maharaja’s School of Arts and Crafts in Lucknow Asit Kumar Haldar was the first Indian to be appointed as the principal of a Government Art School, he was also the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London in 1934 The Allahabad Museum opened a large "Haldar Hall" with many of his works in 1938 The artist passed away in the year 1964