Born in 1918 in Dhaka, now Bangladesh, Paritosh Sen completed his diploma in Fine Arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai. In 1942, he moved to Calcutta, where he and a group of his artist friends founded the Calcutta Group, an art movement that sought to incorporate contemporary values in Indian art. In 1949, Sen left for Paris for further studies where among other institutes he also attended the Ecole Des Beaux Arts. Due to this exposure Paritosh got acquainted with European art and artists including his brief meeting with Pablo Picasso. After his return to India in 1954, Paritosh started teaching and producing paintings with themes influenced by everyday life.
A painter, illustrator, tutor and writer, Paritosh has been a part of the world of Indian art, for almost four decades. Sen's distinguishable works are his caricatures, which reflect strong underlying socio-political shades, and his female nude drawings. His style of illustration is predisposed by his exposure to western modern art and has traces of cubism. He uses two dimensional, structured planes but still creates an illusion of voluptuousness. Sen is also known for his vivid illustrations of everyday urban life drawn from a cynical and detached perspective. His strokes are bold and stylized, although colour is an important aspect of his paintings it is the human figure that articulates a myriad of emotions dominating his art.
Sen received a fellowship for 1970-'71 from the John D. Rockefeller III Fund. As a prolific writer, Sen has published several works on art for leading English and Bengali journals including a series of autobiographies titled 'Jindabahar Lane'. In 1986, he wrote and illustrated a story published by NID, Ahmedabad. Sen's works have been exhibited extensively in India as well as internationally, in Paris, London, Germany, Tokyo and in the US. The French government conferred on him the L'officier de l'ordre des arts et des letters and Lalit Kala Akademy honoured him with the title Lalit Kala Ratna in 2004.
Sen is a recurrent auction artist and has been widely documented and published by esteemed art organizations within India.
Paritosh Sen passed away in October 2008.