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Kolkata's

Kalighat

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Kolkata's Kalighat

Kolkata's Kalighat

Kalighat paintings, as the name suggests, were created in the Kali temple area on the bank of the Ganga in South Calcutta. Kalighat paintings refer to the class of paintings and drawings on hand-made or more usually on machinemade paper produced by a group of artists called “Patua” in the neighborhood of the famous Kali temple at Kalighat in between 19th and earlier 20th Century.

Chapters

Peculiarly Kalighat

Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings, as the name suggests, were created in the Kali Temple area, on the ghat (bank) of the Burin Ganga (a canal diverging from the Ganges River) in south Calcutta.
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings were practised by artisans from the Patua community between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings
The key characteristics of the Kalighat style are the rounded, tapering limbs and pointed faces with small mouths and elongated, almond-shaped eyes. The neck and limbs may be bent at sharp angles or drawn as fluid curves, allowing the figures to have dynamic poses.
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings
Their production process was characterized by a division of labor. A master painter often penciled the basic form which his family members would then ink. Women folk of the family also assisted in the making of the paintings.
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings
Pata painters used colours which were available as plants and minerals to make pigments. Paint brushes were often made out of goat and squirrel hair.
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings were perfect portable souvenir-gifts with short, interesting stories. This made them extremely popular with travellers seeking exotic curios.
Kalighat paintings
Kalighat paintings
On 8 August 1917, Rudyard Kipling, son of John Lockwood Kipling donated a collection of 233 works to the V&A Museum, London. John Kipling was a sculptor, teacher and Curator of the Lahore Museum in the late 1870s.

The Kalighat style of painting evolved as a unique genre of Indian painting in 19th-century Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in West Bengal. Characterised by bright colours and bold outlines with depictions of gods and other mythological characters, these paintings developed over time to represent a variety of themes.

Kalighat ‘patuas’ (painters) produced these inexpensive works of art to make a living.

The Origin & Journey