In 1917, at the age of eight years, Manishi Dey's father died and he was sent to the Santiniketan school Patha Bhavana, which was founded by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Abanindranath Tagore promoted traditional Indian culture in his teachings, which built the foundation for the artistic works of Manishi Dey throughout his life.

One of the major sources of Manishi Dey's inspirations were his travels as he traversed tirelessly throughout the Indian subcontinent in search of varied and newer visual idioms.

His voyages helped him becoming a finished artist in 'Indian Painting' and the water colour 'Wash' technique, an art style he used masterfully in his works.

In 1928, Manishi Dey's brother Mukul decided to settle in Santiniketan and to become the first Indian principal of Government School of Arts in Calcutta, a position he held until 1943.

[1] Almost in stark contrast to his steady brother Mukul, the year 1928 marked the start of series of exhibitions all over India.

[2] In 1946, his works were exhibited by the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) in New Delhi, jointly with other leading Indian artists such as Amrita Sher-Gil and Sailoz Mookherjea.

[6] At the end of World War II, buoyed by the newly established Indian Independence, Manishi Dey's works changed radically and got a new freshness and vitality that lacked in his early years.

In 1949 he painted a series of twenty-two moving images of non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan that captured the agony and pain of their flight.

The Bangalore writer and scholar Venkataramiah Sitaramiah praised his works highly and termed the phase his "red and orange" period.

Bartholomew's writings helped artists such as FN Souza, SH Raza, MF Husain and Manishi Dey to break free from the Bengal School of Art and establish a new Indian avant-garde.