Snapshots of 19th century Bengal in paintings of Kalighat

New Delhi:

The 19th century paintings of Kalighat in West Bengal mirrored a phase of socio-political transition when the feudal Bengali gentry was opening up to European influences under pressure from the East India Company.

Now, 100 'Kalighat paintings' from the 1870-1930 period, taken from London's Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum, are being shown in Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi. The exhibition also has 15 new patachitra (scroll) paintings from the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.

The show, a collaboration between V&A Museum, ministry of culture and Bonita Trust, opened at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi Tuesday.

'The changing socio-economic situation of 19th century Calcutta inspired the imagination of the artists. The new mill paper -- which was invented a few years earlier -- allowed the artists to move their brush easily on paper,' said Sangita Gairola, secretary, ministry of culture.

Divided into six segments, the paintings depict 'Gods and Goddesses', 'Scenes from Life of Krishna & Epics', 'Social Commentaries', 'British and European Influences', 'Named Artists at the End of 19th Century' and 'Contemporary Kalighat Paintings'.

Symbols such as the 'rohu' fish, cats, prawns, women in kitchen, wrestlers, birds, animals, European sahibs, native workers, deities, babus, their modern wives and mistresses are common to the iconography.

The main event around which the art evolved was an 1873 scandal known as the 'Tarakeshwar affair' where a Brahmin priest was found having an affair with a housewife, an art critic said.

The 19th century Bengali babus -- dividing time between their wives in the city and their mistresses in the suburbs -- had suddenly discovered the joys of European luxuries such as ballroom dancing, riding in open carriages, English language and liberal literature.

The hybrid society of extra-marital liaisons, idyllic decadence and increased patronage of the arts led to the birth of Kalighat scroll paintings by migrant groups of painters in areas around the Kalighat temple in Calcutta. They painted on paper in water or natural colours.

Many of these paintings found their way to museums abroad after 1930, when the last of the Kalighat patua (painters) died. The tradition ended for almost 50 years till it began to revive in the villages of Midnapore, with a contemporary flavour.