c. 1875

Souvenir Painting of a Woman with a Parrot

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 they were intended as finished works. The simple elegance of drawings like this influenced the creation of modern art in India, and may have served as one of the so-called "primitive" types that inspired European artists.