kalighat pat (Painting)

About this object

History of use

During the 18th and 19th centuries the function of these paintings was as a souvenir of the religious pilgrimages to Kalighat. As such, they generally depicted religious themes. Pressure from imported and Indian mass produced lithographs caused change not only in style, but also influenced the subject matter. Style developed toward fluid, energetic, simplistic line drawing without background decoration. Subject matter added caricature and satire or a moralizing idiom to the genre which already included the illustration of folk tales, proverbs, popular wisdoms and items of topical interest.

Narrative

Kalighat painting originated in the late 18th or early 19th century. It is thought to have been a transformation of the scroll painting of the itinerant artist minstrels of Bengal which depicted mainly stories from the Ramayana and Krishna Lila. Kalighat painting all but died out in the 1930's.

Iconographic meaning

Illustration is a Kalighat painting of snake swallowing fish, following tradition of illustrating proverb by use of this genre. Implied meaning would be 'it is harder to escape from debauchery once you have taken to it than it is for a fish to escape alive from the mouth of a snake'.

Physical description

Rectangular piece of pulp paper folding in two. One side has an image of a black and white snake eating a black and white fish. The snake has lines of light blue and black dots. Fish is crosshatched on its body. Back ground is blue simulating the sea. Painting was first sketched in brush line. On the reverse is a sketch of a kalighat painting. One group is of human figures, in hats, seated around a table. On lower left, a couple is half-sketched. In mid-foreground a reclining headless torso is partially finished. Lower right corner is filled in with figure standing before a grating. Written in black pen is: Ranjit Chitrakar.