Artists

Kalighat Painting Style

Kalighat Painting

Kalighat Paintings

The East of India is still the most coherent place in the country when it comes to valuing art and literature. And one of the many cultural variations that the state of West Bengal has (like Sculpting in Kumhartuli, the School of Arts in Shantiniketan, and many more), of them is the Painting style called the Kalighat Paintings, a 19th-century art.

Said to have originated from the Kalighat area of Kolkata, earlier it portrayed Goddess Kali and her tales of defeating the demons. Later, the paintings evolved to the depiction of various other Gods and Goddesses and their tales. And much later the paintings went onto depict the daily life of the people living in the space, but the style of the painting remains the same. Pattachitra, the art practiced by the Patua communities, a special mention can be seen of Kalighat paintings on their scrolls.

Barber Cleaning a Woman's Ear, 19th-century

Barber Cleaning a Woman's Ear, 19th-century

History of Kalighat Painting

Kalighat paintings developed in the mid-19th century in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) to illustrate Hindu gods and goddesses and respond to topical social and political events affecting the local people.

At that time, many Patua artists - itinerant storytellers who travelled from village to village, slowly unrolling and singing from scrolls in exchange for food and other goods - migrated to Kolkata because selling their illustrated Kalighat paintings gave them a more secure income.

1) The British: as patrons of this art:

During that time, the British established themselves politically in the country and began to show interest in art, literature and music. They established an institution to provide European-style academic education to Indian artists. The Calcutta School of Art was one such school and attracted traditional artists–the patuas—to the city.

Kalighat, Kolkata- shown with the Kalighat Temple and the river

Kalighat, Kolkata- shown with the Kalighat Temple and the river

Initially, these artists were concentrated around the Kaligat temples where there was demand for religious art. Gradually they started learning from new techniques and found that these helped them increase their income. They started creating a new art form and Kaligat painting was born.

2) Oriental and Occidental Kalighat:

Another theme depicted, dear to the Bengali ethos, was that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his disciples. But the Kalighat artists did not restrict themselves to religious themes. Their paintings depicting different professions and costumes were also popular with tourists. Even contemporary events like crime were the subject of many paintings. The artists also chose to portray secular themes and personalities and in the process played a role in the Independence movement. They painted historic characters like Rani Lakshmibai, and Duldul the famous horse of Imam Hussain of Karbala.

Ganesha in the lap of Parvati

Ganesha in the lap of Parvati

Material Used

It was clear that first there were the sketches and outlines and finally the subject fills, but it is interesting to learn about the unconventional tools used to create these paintings.

Squirrel and goat hair was used to make the brush that was used for sketch drawings. The black ink used for this purpose was made using soot produced by burning an oil lamp under a pot. The other vibrant colors used for filling the painting were essentially homemade in the form of either vegetable dyes or powdered stone fragments of different colors. The dry colors would be mixed with either gum or water to create paint fit to be used on paper and textile.

With the onset of industrial revolution in India however, the colors that were used were industrially produced along with the canvas.

Raw Material for Making a Kalighat Painting

Raw Material for Making a Kalighat Painting

Production

Due to the period in which Kaligat paintings were born, they were created using natural dyes and readily available materials such as cloth and scrolls. An interesting aspect of Kaligat's paintings is that the entire family was involved in the creation of the work.

Depending on gender and age, each family had specific tasks in the developmental process.Economically, this was one of the largest cottage industries in West Bengal at the time. The wives and children of the family are responsible for polishing the colors and making the dyes. Other responsibilities included marking the outline in pencil and generally making all preparations for the painting.

First, the artists would copy only the outline of the sketch onto the canvas from the model sketch. A second artist would then draw and color the contours of the figures, as they were always human figures. The flesh would be depicted in a lighter shade than the muscles. The last, among the artists, would fill in the surrounding colors in the motif as well as the backdrop along with the final outline done in black.

Artisan Making Kalighat Painting

Artisan Making Kalighat Painting

Types of Kalighat Painting

The main distinguishing facet of the Kalighat paintings is the motifs used in them. Because of this there are two types of Kalighat paintings that one can witness, Oriental and Occidental.

Oriental-

Oriental Kalighat Paintings depict the Gods and Goddesses and their stories. Some of the most popular motifs from this type include Rama-Sita, Radha-Krishna, goddess Durga, goddess Laksmi, goddess Annapurna, Hanuman, Shiva and Parvati, among others.

Ravana and Hanuman, Kalighat school of painting, c. 1880

Ravana and Hanuman, Kalighat school of painting, c. 1880

Occidental-

Occidental Kalighat paintings depict the day-to-day chores and lives of people, women bathing, the evolving role of men and women in the society since the emphasis on women’s education, the hypocritical lives of the quasi-bourgeois, the stories of the warriors and fighters during the Independence like Rani Lakshmi Bai, a girl playing the sitar and other themes that common people could identify with.

This made Kaligat's painting the first of its kind, and as the art form received much positive criticism from the public and other artists, it reached everyone, both physically and spiritually. It was an art that appealed to all sectors of society.

Cat Stealing Prawn Kalighat Painting

Cat Stealing Prawn Kalighat Painting

Kalighat pat (Anonymous)

Kalighat pat (Anonymous)

Kalighat Painting in Modern Days

Kaligat's paintings are now exhibited all over the world, from England to Prague to Philadelphia. It is one of the most well-recognized forms of Indian modern art globally. Besides being an art form, it is also used as a modern motif in the creation of fashionable ethnic Indian garments. Indian designers have been inspired by this genre of art to create some of the most unusual motifs to have ever been spotted on a saree. This, however, has played a great role in widening the scope of its reception and bringing it to younger people whose interest lies more in unique fashion than in modern art forms.

Kalighat paintings also saw a diversification in the motifs or subjects for their paintings. Pets and other animals such as cats, fish, lobsters, prawns, birds etc. were also used as primary subjects in a string of Kalighat paintings. Experts say, that this shift in theme could have been influenced either by the Mughal fascination with fauna or with British, and by extension Western, interest in modern themes.

Kalighat Painting of Shri Krishna

Kalighat Painting of Shri Krishna

Today the practice of Kalighat paintings still continues in the villages of Bengal where the rich traditions are proudly being carried out by the patuas which are being handed down through the generations. This is surely a matter of great appreciation and a consortium is needed whose un-tired effort will revive the glorious past of Bengal.

Kalighat painting continues today in the rural districts of West Bengal. Medinipur and Birbhum are two such areas where the practice of Kalighat painting has been kept alive by contemporary artists. Using organic dyes, as the original 19th century patuas did, the paintings they create focus on secular themes and current events as well as a mixture of religions depictions, executed in a modern style.

Kalighat paintings

Kalighat paintings

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