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George Percival Sproule Keyt, MBE (17 April 1901 – 31 July 1993) was a Sri Lankan painter.[1] He is often considered Sri Lanka's most distinguished modern painter.[2] Keyt's dominant style is influenced by cubism. He also claimed to be influenced by his contemporary Henri Matisse and the ancient Buddhist art and sculpture of Nagarjunakonda, Sanchi and Gandhara.[1] The Jataka tales formed a recurring theme in many of his works.[3][4]
In addition to being a painter, Keyt was a poet. He outlined his perceptions and practice as a painter in a few essays on the vision of the painter. One of his most notable literary works is his translation of the Gita Govinda into English (Bombay, 1940) and Sinhalese.[5] These translations were illustrated by his own line drawings (see Martin Russell collection and Amerasinghe-Ganendra collections).