Painting

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Artist/Maker	Unknown
Place of origin	Kolkata (made)

Painting, in opaque watercolour and tin alloy on paper, a figure of a winged apsaras, or nymph, is seen with a cobra. The apsaras is depicted as wearing only a short skirt but bare upper body but adorned in Kalighat style in tin alloy with multi-string necklace, earrings, amulets and bracelets. The apsaras is also adorned with an English style crown, indicating an European inspired image.

Object details

Categories	Paintings Myths & Legends Bonita Trust Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project
Object type	Painting
Materials and techniques	Painted in opaque watercolour and tin alloy on paper Opaque Watercolour Paint Paper Painted
Brief description	Painting, winged apsaras dancing with snake, opaque watercolour and tin alloy on paper, Kalighat, Kolkata, ca. 1885
Physical description	Painting, in opaque watercolour and tin alloy on paper, a figure of a winged apsaras, or nymph, is seen with a cobra. The apsaras is depicted as wearing only a short skirt but bare upper body but adorned in Kalighat style in tin alloy with multi-string necklace, earrings, amulets and bracelets. The apsaras is also adorned with an English style crown, indicating an European inspired image.
Dimensions	Height: 450mm Width: 274mm (maximum) 07/08/2013 dimensions measured as part of Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project 2013.
Content description	A figure of a winged apsaras, or nymph, is seen with a cobra.
Styles	Kalighat Painting Kalighat
Object history	Purchased from Miss M. Steele in 1950, as part of a collection inherited from her mother, a scholar in Sanskrit in 1894. Miss Steele reported that her grandmother had also lived in India for some time and that it was possible that the pictures were originally collected by her.
Subjects depicted	Nymph Cobra Jewellery
Bibliographic references	Archer, W.G., Bazaar Paintings of Calcutta the Style of Kalighat, Victoria & Albert Museum, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Ofice 1953, p.23. Kalighat paintings : a catalogue and introduction / by W.G. Archer. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1971 Number: 0112900291 : pl. no. 47, cat. no. 23, lvii: p.67.
Collection	South & South East Asia Collection
Accession number	IS.683-1950

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Record created	June 30, 2006
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125610/painting-unknown/

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