Narayan Shridhar Bendre was born in a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin family on 21 August 1910 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He was initially trained in the State Art School there prior to taking the Government Diploma in Art from Bombay in 1933. His initial interests were conditioned by the quasi-modernist landscape painting as practised in the Indore School at the beginning of the 20th century. An avid traveller, Bendre continued to paint the landscape throughout his career, often with different stylistic means. Early recognition came with the Silver Medal from the Bombay Art Society in 1934, followed by the then ultimate honour of the gold medal in 1941. Part of 1945 was spent as artist-in-residence at Santiniketan, where he met Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij and Binode Behari Mukherjee. He also met Jamini Roy in Calcutta. Bendre’s early work has been classified as being academic and impressionist, dominant subjects being the landscape and the portrait, in oils and gouache.