id:			162432
accession number:	2003.107.a
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.107.a
updated:		2023-08-23 23:57:36.721000

Maid bringing a hookah to a lady (recto), from a Kalighat album, c. 1890. Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat. Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper; secondary support: 48.6 x 30.1 cm (19 1/8 x 11 7/8 in.); painting only: 45.8 x 27.5 cm (18 1/16 x 10 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward 2003.107.a

title:				Maid bringing a hookah to a lady (recto), from a Kalighat album
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1890
creation date earliest:		1875
creation date latest:		1905
current location:		
creditline:			Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward
copyright:			

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culture:	Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
technique:	Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper
department:	Indian and Southeast Asian Art
collection:	Indian Art
type:		Painting
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Secondary Support: 48.6 x 30.1 cm (19 1/8 x 11 7/8 in.); Painting only: 45.8 x 27.5 cm (18 1/16 x 10 13/16 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Indian Kalighat Paintings
	opening date:   2011-05-01T00:00:00
	<i>Indian Kalighat Paintings</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-September 18, 2011).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	William E. Ward [1922-2004], Solon, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
	date: ?-2003
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 2003-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:


digital description:


wall description:
Kalighat paintings reflect the time and context in which they were created. Kalighat painters used their medium to offer penetrating and insightful critiques of British-influenced Indians as well as the British themselves through satires and caricatures. Newly rich Bengali native Indian clerks (babus) aspired to dress and behave like their British masters, and Kalighat painters taunted them for this. <br><br>The maid, dressed in green, holds a hookah in her right hand. The lady in red is likely a fashionable high society concubine or prostitute known and depicted at this time as hookah-smoking, makeup-wearing, paan- (betel leaf with areca nut and lime paste) chewing hussies. The wealth created by the East India Company made it possible for Bengali babu dandies to have concubines and pay for prostitutes.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2003.107.a/2003.107.a_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2003.107.a/2003.107.a_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2003.107.a/2003.107.a_full.tif