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The changing World of Visual Arts 6. What style of painting did the Patuas and  The images were engraved in wooden blocks.
kumors adopt when they shifted to Kalighat?  The carved block was inked, pressed against
1. What is scroll painting?
 On shifting to Kalighat, they continued to paint paper, and then the woodcut prints that were
Painting on a long roll of paper that could be
the religious images. produced were coloured by hand.
rolled up is called scroll painting.
 Now Kalighat painters began to use shading to  In this way, many copies could be produced
2. Where did the Kalighat paintings develop in
give them a rounded form, to make the images from the same block.
India?
look three-dimensional. 9. What was the advantage of mechanical
The Kalighat paintings developed in Bengal,
around the pilgrimage centre of the temple of  Yet the images were not realistic and lifelike printing method over the block printing?
Kalighat  They used bold, deliberately non-realistic style,  The mechanical printing method allowed prints
3. Who developed the new style of Kalighat where the figures emerge large and powerful, to be produced in lager numbers as compared to
paintings in Bengal? with a minimum of lines, detail and colours. block printing.
The local village scroll painters (called patuas) 7. What kind of paintings did the Kalighat  These prints could therefore be sold cheap in the
and potters (called kumors in eastern India and painters produce after 1840s? market.
Kumhars in north India) developed the new style  Living in a society where values, tastes, social  Even the poor could buy them.
of Kalighat paintings in Bengal. norms and customs were undergoing rapid 10. How did middle-class Indian artists
4. Why did people from nearby villages migrated changes, Kalighat artists responded to the world produce paintings in the 19th century?
to Calcutta in the early nineteenth century? around, and produced paintings on social and  Middle-class Indian artists set up printing
 In the early nineteenth century, the city was political themes. presses and produced prints for a wide market.
expanding as a commercial and administrative  They depicted social life under British rule.  They were trained in British art schools in new
centre.  The artists mocked at the changes they saw methods of life study, oil painting, and print
 Colonial offices were coming up, new buildings around, ridiculing the new tastes of those who making.
and roads were built, markets were being spoke in English and adopted Western habits, 11. Name the most successful printing press
established. dresses like sahibs, smoked cigarettes, or sat on set up in the late 19th century in Calcutta.
 The city appeared as a place of opportunity chairs. Calcutta Art Studio
where people could come to make a new living.  They made fun of the westernized baboo, 12. What kind of paintings were produced in
5. What style of painting did the village patuas criticized the corrupt priests, and warned the Calcutta Art Studio?
and kumors adopt before the nineteenth against women moving out of their homes.  It produced lifelike images of eminent Bengali
century?  They often expressed the anger of common personalities as well as mythological pictures.
 Before the nineteenth century, the village patuas people against the rich, and the fear many  These mythological pictures were realistic.
and kumors had worked on mythological themes people had about dramatic changes of social  The figures were located in picturesque
and produced images of gods and goddesses. norms. landscape settings, with mountains, lakes, rivers
 Traditionally, the figures in scroll paintings 8. How did the Kalighat painters produce many and forests.
looked flat, not rounded. copies of their paintings initially when they
shifted to Kalighat?
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13. What type of prints were produced in Abanindranath Tagore

India with the spread of nationalism in the 18. Why did a new group of nationalist
early 20th century? artists reject the art of Raja Ravi Varma?
 With the spread of nationalism, popular prints of  They rejected the art of Ravi Varma as imitative
the early twentieth century began carrying and westernized, and declared that such a style
nationalist messages. was unsuitable for depicting the nation’s
 In many of them, Bharat Mata appeared as a ancient myths and legends.
goddess carrying the national flag, or nationalist  They felt that a genuine Indian style of painting
heroes sacrificing their head to the Mata and had to draw inspiration from non-Western art
gods and goddesses slaughtering the British. traditions, and try to capture the spiritual
14. Name an artist who belonged to the essence of the East.
family of Maharaja of Travancore in Kerala and 19. How did the new group of nationalist
who adopted the style of painting that was artists change their style of painting after
both modern and national. rejecting Raja Ravi Varma’s style?
Raja Ravi Varma  They broke away from the convention of oil
15. What did Raja Ravi Varma paint? painting and the realistic style, and turned for
 He mastered the Western art of oil painting and inspiration to medieval Indian traditions of
realistic life study, but painted themes from miniature painting and the ancient art of mural
Indian mythology. painting in the Ajanta caves.
 He dramatized on canvas, scene after scene from  They were also influenced by the art of
the Ramayan and the Mahabharata, drawing on Japanese artists who visited India at that time
the theatrical performances of mythological to develop an Asian art movement.
stories that he witnessed during his tour of the 20. Why did a new generation of artists
Bombay Presidency. begin to break away from the style
16. How did Raja Ravi Varma react to his popularized by Abanindranath Tagore after
popularity? the 1920s?
 Responding to the huge popular appeal of such  Some saw it as sentimental, others thought
paintings, Ravi Varma decided to set up a picture that spiritualism could not be seen as the
production team and printing press on the central feature of Indian culture.
outskirts of Bombay.  They felt that artists had to explore real life
 Here colour prints of his religious paintings were instead of illustrating ancient books, and look
mass produced. for inspiration from living folk art and tribal
 Even the poor could now buy these cheap prints. designs rather than ancient art forms.
17. Who was the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore?