c. 1875

Souvenir Painting of a Woman with a Rose

In the 1870s, competition from mass-produced woodcuts and lithographs challenged professional artists working near Kalighat to produce souvenir paintings more quickly. This brush drawing of a woman resembles those done as studies for full-color paintings, but it was intended as a finished work. The simple elegance of drawings like this one influenced the creation of modern art in India, and may have served as one of the so-called "primitive" types that inspired European artists.