English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah, c. 1890. Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat. Watercolor, graphite, ink, and tin on paper; secondary support: 48 x cm (18 7/8 x 11 5/8 in.); painting only: x 28 cm (18 x 11 in.). This is an archetypal satirical caricature of an native Indian clerk (babu), a Bengali dapper dandy whose fashion sense combines British and Indian mores with dissonant results. Imitating his British masters, he sits cross-legged on a Victorian chair, holding a hookah, sporting a Prince Albert hairstyle, and wearing European buckled shoes. His postur
English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah, c. 1890. Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat. Watercolor, graphite, ink, and tin on paper; secondary support: 48 x cm (18 7/8 x 11 5/8 in.); painting only: x 28 cm (18 x 11 in.). This is an archetypal satirical caricature of an native Indian clerk (babu), a Bengali dapper dandy whose fashion sense combines British and Indian mores with dissonant results. Imitating his British masters, he sits cross-legged on a Victorian chair, holding a hookah, sporting a Prince Albert hairstyle, and wearing European buckled shoes. His posture models popular photo studio portraits of the time. Kalighat painters ridiculed these vain babus as foppish nouveau riche.
Size: 1987px × 3400px
Photo credit: © CMA/BOT / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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