Karttikeya 19th Century Bengali watercolor

Opaque watercolor on paper

Bengal (Calcutta, Kalighat), 1870-85 Folk and Village Painting

Around 1830, local bazaar artists operating souvenir stalls and booths around Calcutta's great Kali temple began to produce bold, highly simplified folk paintings of Hindu deities and scenes of everyday Bengali life. Pilgrims to the shrine bought these pictures, known as "Kalighat" paintings.

This representation of Karttikeya -- Shiva's eternally young son, the god of war and the possessor of transcendental knowledge -- is a typical Kalighat work. Karttikeya, yellow-skinned and bare-chested, rides his peacock mount, represented in frontal view. The precise outlines, rounded contours, and figural distortions of the Kalighat idiom are a completely local style, but the shading and the use of large sheets of paper reflect European influence.

Courtesy: Worlds of Wonder and Desire: Online Exhibition