A Kalighat painting of the goddess Kali, painted in opaque watercolour with tin-alloy highlighting on paper, in the loose, quick brushwork the style is known for. Kali is shown four-armed, one hand holding a man's severed head, in the bold, economical figure style bazaar artists working near the Kali temple at Kalighat, Kolkata developed from the mid-nineteenth century, stripping decoration back to just one or two figures against a plain ground for sale to temple pilgrims and visitors. The sheet was collected in Calcutta by J. Lockwood Kipling between 1865 and 1893 and given to the Victoria and Albert Museum by his son, the writer Rudyard Kipling, in 1917.
Facts
Custody
Current LocationVictoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London (accession IM.2:73-1917) 1 Current CustodianVictoria and Albert Museum 1 Custody HistoryCollected in Calcutta by J. Lockwood Kipling between 1865 and 1893; given to the Victoria and Albert Museum by his son, Rudyard Kipling, in 1917. 1 Origins
Date of Creation RegionKalighat, Kolkata, Bengal 1 Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectThe goddess Kali, shown with four arms, one hand holding a severed head. 1 Physical Form
MediumOpaque watercolour and tin alloy on paper 1 Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightSourced to the subject's own accountThis painting is out of copyright, but a specific modern photograph of it carries its own separate copyright. This atlas describes and cites the work rather than reproducing an image of it. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Kolkata directly: "near the Kali temple at Kalighat, Kolkata developed from the mid-nineteenth century, stripping decoration back to just one or two figures against a plain ground for sale to temple pilgrims and..."
Belongs to Tradition
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