Kalighat Painting

Kalighat painting was a product of the changing urban society of the nineteenth century Calcutta. With the growing importance of the Kalighat temple as a pilgrimage centre in the then British capital, Calcutta, a group of artists from the traditional patua and other artisan communities evolved a quick method of painting on mill-made paper. Using brush and ink from the lampblack, these artists defined figures of deities, gentry and ordinary people with deft and vigorously flowing lines. There were romantic depictions of women. There were satirical paintings lampooning the hypocrisies of the newly rich and the changing roles of men and women after the introduction of education for women.