Page 28 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

PAINTING 25

plank with tools and taking prints of them in black ink on cheap papers and finally by
adding colors by hand on a few spots of the picture. Although the roots and the
inspirations of the Kalighat patuas and the Bat-tala printmakers were from the same
and similar sources, but, as woodcuts and engravings on metals required greater
technological expertise, it is to be noted that, whereas the Kalighat patuas were mostly
descendants from the tradition of folk painters, the printmakers of Bat-tala came more
from the tradition of wood and metal craftsmen – from the families of goldsmiths and
craftsmen in different media. This could be one reason why one can see more often
representations of Bengali folk motifs, such as nakshi kantha, alpana, nakshi pitha,
shakher hari etc. in Bat-tala prints than in the Kalighat paintings. 28
Lithography is another technique of printing pictures which gained popularity in this
country. Annada Prasad Bagchi (1849-1905) established his ‘Calcutta Art Studio’ in
1876 and started selling lithograph prints of religious and mythological scenes,
portraits and alphabets. Nevertheless, Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1907) of Kerala
achieved unprecedented popularity in all corners of India including Bengal by selling
oleograph prints from his own press which he established in 1894.
3. The Period of Transition – Introduction of Oil Painting
Along with these print techniques the British have introduced simultaneously the
technique of painting in oil color. The advantages of painting in oil have vastly
influenced the practice of painting in India. However, as paintings in oil color were
not as cheaply available as prints and thus were not popular among the masses, the
introduction of oil painting and the role it had played in transforming the artistic taste
before the establishment of art schools has not been much discussed or appreciated.
Many Indian painters took to paint in oil color along with the then prevalent Company
style of painting which was executed in watercolor and some of them showed
technical competence equal to that of the European painters. In fact, the practice of
painting portraits in oil color had become a very sought-after profession in India in the
later half of the eighteenth century, years before the establishment of art schools. It
was a period of transition, the time of a shift of taste of the Indian royalty and
aristocracy from the appreciation of the native art to the acceptance of the western
mode of art. The ‘Bhadralok’ Babu society of Kolkata decorated their houses with
replicas of western sculptures, at the same time they started to commission artists to
paint portraits in oil color. They employed foreign painters at the beginning, but soon
some local painters started to show considerable dexterity in this medium.
There evolved some composite styles of oil painting in different centers of India in the
decades between the end of the Company style and the introduction of the oil-painting
method which have great historical value as examples of a transitional period. Though
it started primarily as a means of portraiture, gradually artists took to other themes as
well. These artists usually took lessons from European teachers and copied paintings
by western artists. However, they helped develop some local oil painting trends as
well which were prevalent throughout the nineteenth century. These showed