Kartikeya, from a Kalighat album (c. 1890): Art, History and Details

Kartikeya, from a Kalighat album (c. 1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Here Kartikeya, god of war and son of Shiva and Parvati, born to annihilate the demon Taraka, is provocatively depicted as a dandy. Sitting astride his vehicle, the peacock, Kartikeya has a Prince Albert hairstyle and buckled European shoes. Fashionably draping his shawl, Karitkeya’s backdrop is a halo created by the peacock’s tail. The painting integrates prevailing Bengali social mores with traditional images and themes.

Object facts

• Title: Kartikeya, from a Kalighat album
• Date: c. 1890
• Culture: Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper
• Dimensions: Secondary Support: 47.8 x 29.1 cm (18 13/16 x 11 7/16 in.); Painting only: 45.8 x 28.2 cm (18 1/16 x 11 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2003.151

Collection credit

Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sarma, Deepak. "Indian Kalighat Paintings." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 51, no. 4 (July/August 2011): 4–6.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.