{
    "data": {
        "id": 162495,
        "accession_number": "2003.145",
        "share_license_status": "CC0",
        "tombstone": "English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah, c. 1890. Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat. Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper; secondary support: 48 x 29.5 cm (18 7/8 x 11 5/8 in.); painting only: 45.7 x 28 cm (18 x 11 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward, 2003.145",
        "current_location": null,
        "title": "English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah",
        "creation_date": "c. 1890",
        "creation_date_earliest": 1875,
        "creation_date_latest": 1905,
        "artists_tags": [],
        "culture": [
            "Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat"
        ],
        "technique": "Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper",
        "support_materials": [],
        "department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
        "collection": "Indian Art",
        "type": "Painting",
        "measurements": "Secondary Support: 48 x 29.5 cm (18 7/8 x 11 5/8 in.); Painting only: 45.7 x 28 cm (18 x 11 in.)",
        "dimensions": {
            "secondary support": {
                "height": 0.48,
                "height_inch": 18,
                "height_inch_fraction": 0.875,
                "width": 0.295,
                "width_inch": 11,
                "width_inch_fraction": 0.625
            },
            "painting only": {
                "height": 0.457,
                "height_inch": 18,
                "height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
                "width": 0.28,
                "width_inch": 11,
                "width_inch_fraction": 0.0
            }
        },
        "state_of_the_work": null,
        "edition_of_the_work": null,
        "copyright": null,
        "inscriptions": [],
        "exhibitions": {
            "current": [
                {
                    "id": 200105,
                    "title": "Indian Kalighat Paintings",
                    "description": "<i>Indian Kalighat Paintings</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-September 18, 2011).",
                    "opening_date": "2011-05-01T00:00:00"
                }
            ],
            "legacy": []
        },
        "provenance": [
            {
                "description": "William E. Ward [1922\u20132004], Solon, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
                "citations": [],
                "footnotes": null,
                "date": "?\u20132003",
                "sortorder": 1
            },
            {
                "description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
                "citations": [],
                "footnotes": null,
                "date": "2003\u2013",
                "sortorder": 2
            }
        ],
        "find_spot": null,
        "related_works": [],
        "former_accession_numbers": [],
        "did_you_know": null,
        "early_education_description": null,
        "artlens_description": null,
        "description": "This is an archetypal satirical caricature of a native Indian clerk (babu), a Bengali dapper dandy whose fashion sense combines British and Indian mores with dissonant results. Imitating his British masters, he sits cross-legged on a Victorian chair, holding a hookah, sporting a Prince Albert hairstyle, and wearing European buckled shoes. His posture models popular photo studio portraits of the time. Kalighat painters ridiculed these vain babus as foppish nouveau riche.",
        "external_resources": {
            "wikidata": [
                "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60479221"
            ],
            "internet_archive": [
                "https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2003.145-english-babu-native"
            ]
        },
        "citations": [
            {
                "citation": "Sarma, Deepak. \"Indian Kalighat Paintings.\" <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em> 51, no. 4 (July/August 2011): 4\u20136.",
                "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 4\u20135",
                "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2011-04/page/4/mode/2up"
            }
        ],
        "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.145",
        "images": {
            "annotation": null,
            "web": {
                "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2003.145/2003.145_web.jpg",
                "width": "526",
                "height": "900",
                "filesize": "146310",
                "filename": "2003.145_web.jpg"
            },
            "print": {
                "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2003.145/2003.145_print.jpg",
                "width": "1987",
                "height": "3400",
                "filesize": "1664827",
                "filename": "2003.145_print.jpg"
            },
            "full": {
                "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2003.145/2003.145_full.tif",
                "width": "3908",
                "height": "6688",
                "filesize": "78441072",
                "filename": "2003.145_full.tif"
            }
        },
        "alternate_images": [],
        "creditline": "Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward",
        "image_credit": null,
        "sketchfab_id": null,
        "sketchfab_url": null,
        "gallery_donor_text": null,
        "athena_id": 162495,
        "creators": [],
        "legal_status": "accessioned",
        "accession_date": "2003-09-02T00:00:00",
        "sortable_date": 1875,
        "date_added_to_oa": null,
        "date_text": "c. 1890",
        "collapse_artists": false,
        "on_loan": false,
        "recently_acquired": false,
        "record_type": "object",
        "conservation_statement": null,
        "has_conservation_images": false,
        "cover_accession_number": null,
        "is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
        "impression": null,
        "alternate_titles": [
            "Calcutta \"Man about Town\" Smoking a Margela Pipe"
        ],
        "is_highlight": false,
        "updated_at": "2026-06-02 11:23:17.967000"
    }
}