Sharabhuja (The composite form of Chaitanya, Rama, and Krishna)

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Sharabhuja (The composite form of Chaitanya, Rama, and Krishna)

19th century

Artist/maker unknown, Indian

In 1809, a temple honoring the goddess Kali was built on the Ganges River near Calcutta (now Kolkata) and soon became a major center for pilgrimage. Drawn by this new sales opportunity, village painters of narrative scrolls came to Kalighat and began producing individual souvenir paintings on paper depicting religious subjects and, later, satires of contemporary life. To appeal to urban audiences and to speed production, they overlaid their line sketches with transparent color washes adapted from European art. Kalighat painting lasted into the 1930s when it could no longer compete with brightly colored, inexpensive oleographic prints.

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Object Details

Title:

Sharabhuja (The composite form of Chaitanya, Rama, and Krishna)

Date:

19th century

Artist:

Artist/maker unknown, Indian

Medium:

Ink on paper

Dimensions:

Sheet: 18 1/8 × 11 3/16 inches (46 × 28.4 cm) Mount (Paper Mount): 20 1/16 × 12 7/8 inches (51 × 32.7 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

Stella Kramrisch Collection, 1994

Accession Number:

1994-148-553

Geography:

Made in Kalighat, Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), West Bengal, Bengal Region, India, Asia

Context:

Period: Modern Period

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