Krishna and Radha

late 19th-early 20th century

This watercolor image is called a Kalighat painting, produced quickly and in multiples for sale in the markets around the Kali temple in Kolkata at the turn of the twentieth century. Common features of Kalighat paintings are the loose application of shading around the arms, legs, and faces of the figures and the rudimentary curtain at the top to suggest a stage or altar setting. Indian modernist artists of the early twentieth century would cite Kalighat paintings as a source of inspiration, noting that their Indian predecessors were abstracting the human form even before European painters.