Kalighat Pata Painting in the Collection of Indian Museum

On the basis of Kalighat paintings reserved in various collections, it is now generally accepted that as a particular art form it flourished in Kolkata between 1830 and 1930. Nibaran Chandra Ghosh and Kali Charan Ghosh, the two last practitioners of the Kalighat idiom, died after 1930. Their descendants survived mainly by painting on clay plates and making clay toys.

The first stylistic phase which began around 1830 shows an attempt at continuing  traditional forms, but this was becoming progressively difficult, because the preparation of the natural colour required both labour and time. Though only a few of the patas of this formative period survive, they reveal how the stylistic changes evolved. The coloured patas were of two varieties. One group had a flat coloured background on which bright colours were used, chrome yellow, Prussian or Indigo blue, lac red and black from Soot’s, with gum Arabic used as a binder. Often ornamental decors  were made, with several parallel strings drawn at close intervals by using sliver sheen prepared from colloidal of tin. The second variety had only suggestive patches of solid colour on a blank paper-white background. The Kalighat Patuas mostly made an outline in pencil, then they drew the various parts of the composition and filled them in with colours.

Another phase began after 1840. Kalighat painters faced a stiff competition from cheaper lithographic prints. Most of the older designs remained, though the colouring was reduced and lines become more dominant. The silver colour which was previously used as second ornamental line against the dark outer line was discarded. Sometimes lithographic outlines were used for the paintings which were then filled out with colours by hand.