Kalighat painting evolved as a unique genre of Indian painting in 19th-century Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), in West Bengal. From the depiction of gods and other mythological characters, these paintings developed over time to reflect a variety of themes.
The Kalighat paintings developed in the 19th century in the Bengal presidency. The travelling scroll painters, or the patuas, had been practicing folk art of Pattachitra. The new manners and customs of the British settlers, the revivalist exercises of the Mughal and theatres, as well as the use of Sanskrit on stage, were absorbed by the rural artists who had migrated to Calcutta and developed it into a popular urban genre. The period of Kalighat paintings coincides with the age of mechanical reproduction in the form of woodcut, lithography, oleography, and printing. These developments had caused mass consumption of imagery in the urban cities, and Kalighat was a response to it. The Kalighat painters interacted with the colonial paintings and began the use of watercolours, shaded figures, and folio-sized, mill-made papers. They absorbed the role of the western theatre performances and the art schools that developed the unique stylistic features of the Kalighat paintings as we know them today.
Water color on paper
28X22 Inch
Water color on paper
28X22 Inch
Water color on paper
28.5X24 Inch
Water color on paper
28.5X24 Inch
Water color on paper
22x14.5 Inch
Water color on paper
22x14.5 Inch
Water color on paper
22x14.5 Inch
Water color on paper
28X20 Inch
Water color on paper
14.5x10.5 Inch
Water color on paper
14.5x10.5 Inch
Water color on paper
14.5x10.5 Inch
Water color on paper
14.5x10.5 Inch
