Indian Painting B.A. II

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Indian PaintingB.A. II

• Dr. O. P. Parameswaran,
• Assistant Professor,
• Department of Fine Arts,
• Post Graduate Govt. College for Girls,
• Sector-11, Chandigarh.

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Unit-1 History of Indian Painting (BA-3)

• 4. Folk style
• 4.1 Kalighat Paintings, Calcutta (Bengal)

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• Introduction
• In 1809 a temple in honor of the Goddess Kali was
  built at Kalighat, a place situated two to three
  miles south of the centre Calcutta.
• The splendid temple soon becomes a famous
  pilgrimage spot.
• At this time, Calcutta, already the headquarters
  of British administration in India was rapidly
  becoming the main centre of British trading
  interests.
• In the late-eighteenth century and early years of
  the nineteenth century, professional Indian
  artist had been moving to Calcutta.

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• With the break down of the Mughal patronage,
  miniature painters from place to place such as
  Patna and Murshidabad were setting in the city
  and making pictures for the British.
• Indian artists soon realized the British interest
  and began to produce paintings for sale to them.

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• At the same time, they quickly noticed techniques
  favored by the British- the use of thin sheets of
  paper, free washes of water color, pencil or
  pen-and-ink outlines and shading to suggest
  rounded forms. Ever quick to absorb new
  influences, they modified their old ways and
  adopted some of these practice.
• Beside Mughal painters, Indian artist belong to a
  different tradition were also migrating to
  Calcutta

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• In parts of Bengal, outside the city- Bankura,
  Birbhum, Burdwan, Nadia and Hooghly- village
  patuas or artist minstrel had long existed. They
  produced painted scrolls illustrating popular
  stories such as Ramayana and the Krishna Lila and
  wandered from village to village, singing songs
  and showing their work. Their style of painting
  with its free distortion, sharply linear rhythm
  and bold colors was the exact opposite of Mughal
  painting and it is no surprise that on arriving
  in Calcutta, they adjusted less easily to British
  conditions. For such painters, the Kalighat
  temple offered immediate scope and spurred by
  pilgrims demands, some of them settled in its
  neighborhood

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• The nature of works
• The usage of water color medium facilitated rapid
  production and since most pilgrims begrudged
  paying more than one anna for a picture, speed
  was essential if they were to earn a living.
• Thin cheap paper was a useful asset and even the
  British vogue for shaded forms appeared worth
  acquiring

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• With a quick sweep of the brush, dramatic effects
  could be achieved with far less effort than by
  using the former medium, opaque gouache.
• By adopting some of these devices, Patna artists
  liberated themselves from their tightly organized
  conventions yet invented to maintain a taste for
  bold and lively shapes and strong designs.

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• In one further respect, Calcutta opened up new
  vistas.
• With its British and urban emphasis, secular and
  even foreign subjects could be freely
  incorporated and in the year 1830 to 1840
  Kalighat painters included in their repertoire
  such alien themes as an Englishman on an
  elephant shooting a tiger and jockeys engaged
  in horse racing

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• Throughout this period the years 1830 to 1865
  secular themes accounts for at least a portion of
  Kalighat painting. Some of the paintings depicted
  are dancing girls and courtesans.
• Moral principles were also affirmed by
  illustrating proverbs.
• These often involved natural history allusions
  and accordingly creatures such as snakes, fishes,
  prawns, cats, mice, musk-rats and jackals were at
  times depicted

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• The commonest subjects however were Hindu Gods
  and Goddesses.
• By 1865, the production of these paintings had
  been expanded vastly and the style had achieved
  new heights of rhythmical expression.
• During this time, orthodox pilgrimage blamed
  European influences for undermining the old Hindu
  attitudes to religion and ethics.
• To ease orthodox sentiments the Kalighat painters
  responded and gradually new subjects entered
  their paintings

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• Besides courtesans, married women were shown
  standing on their prostrate husbands and enraged
  husbands appeared beating their wives.
• The industry is on the declining owing to cheaper
  colored lithographic representation of Gods and
  Goddesses turned out by the ex-students of the
  Calcutta School of Art having appeared in the
  market.
• A painting in the old style can still be had, by
  order, at the price of Rs 10 and upwards.

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• Products of the machine age had, in fact,
  threatened the painters livelihood and in a
  desperate attempt to rescue their industry, they
  were now economizing in detail, applying silver
  paint with reckless abandon, resorting to
  uncolored line drawings and employing great
  sweeping curves to suggest the human form.
• Jamini Roy, a renowned artist in the early of
  20th century was inspired by the Kalighat line
  drawing and adopted the same in his creative
  painting as the basis for new and modern style.