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Not currently on display at the V&A

Painting

ca. 1830 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Painting, opaque watercolour on paper, an Englishman wearing white trousers, a green coat, black shoe and top hat is seated on a blue elephant holding a gun, which is held the wrong way round, to shoot a tiger.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Painted in opaque watercolour on paper
Brief description
Painting, Englishman on elephant shooting tiger, opaque watercolour on paper, Kalighat, Kolkata, ca. 1830
Physical description
Painting, opaque watercolour on paper, an Englishman wearing white trousers, a green coat, black shoe and top hat is seated on a blue elephant holding a gun, which is held the wrong way round, to shoot a tiger.
Dimensions
  • Height: 404mm (maximum)
  • Width: 280mm (maximum)
31/07/13 dimensions measured as part of Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project 2013; object irregular in shape
Content description
An Englishman wearing white trousers, a green coat, black shoe and top hat is seated on a blue elephant holding a gun, which is held the wrong way round, to shoot a tiger.
Style
Object history
Normally the hunter would be contained in a howdah, a small enclosure at the back of the elephant, and the elephant would have been driven by a mahout, the elephant trainer. However the artist has edited this image only to the dominant features, the Englishman, gun and tiger. The painter depicted the animal with a tiger's ring marked tail but missed out the tiger's stripes on its body, instead the animal has almost a leopard's spots.

Historical significance: Calcutta was recognised as the capital of British India from 1833-1912. By the 1830s, artists (patuas) had arrived from rural villages in Bengal and began to produce paintings that reflected the local history, mythology, customs and conflics of a colonised society. As a popular art form, these artists are recognised for their use of brilliant colour, simplified images and swift and bold brushstrokes that became the hallmark of Kalighat painting in the 19th and early 20th century.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic references
  • Archer, W.G., Bazaar Paintings of Calcutta, Victoria & Albert Museum, H.M.S.O., 1955 p. 18, no.1, ill p. 29, p. 21
  • Sinha, Suhashini, and Panda, C, eds. Kalighat Paintings from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2012. ISBN 1851776656. p. 79
  • Kalighat paintings : a catalogue and introduction / by W.G. Archer. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1971 Number: 0112900291 : Fig. 1, cat. no. 1, xxxi: p. 45.
  • Arts of Bengal : the heritage of Bangladesh and eastern India : an exhibition organized by the Whitechapel Art Gallery in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum : 9 November-30 December 1979, Whitechapel Art Gallery ..., 12 January-17 February 1980, Manchester City Art Gallery ... . [London]: Whitechapel Art Gallery, [1979] Number: 085488047X (pbk.) : p.51
Collection
Accession number
IS.209-1950

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Record createdNovember 11, 2002
Record URL
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