Kalighat Painting showing Ganesha playing Tabla from Collection of Sam Gupta
The painters called Patuas who developed the Kalighat painting style were traditional scroll painters (patuas). In catering to the transient, urban populace, the artists let go on of their linear narrative style and adopted single pictures with one or two figures. The traditionally inherited techniques and iconography were blended with the use of water colours and shading, to show frames of a changing society and were sold by thousands at places of pigrimage like Kalighat and Tarkeshwar and at local fairs at prices ranging from one pice to one anna each"The Pats should be devided into periods 1825 to 1850, 1860 to 1900, 1901 to 1930 when different kind of paints, paper used and buyers - pilgrims, merchants foreign tourists or Christian religious preachers. The advent of Railway service brought large number of pilgrims, Merchants, Traders who bought them in large wholesale quantity for resale at north and west India thru Chitra sala shops selling handpainted religious chitras paintings, handwritten illustrated books, monolitho pictures lithographed at Agra or Lucknow by Nawal Kishore Press where Prem Saugur written by Lallu Lal in 1815 in crude Hindi and translated in English by W.Hollings an illustrated book on life of Krishnas' and printed at Nawal Kishore Press Lucknow in 1855) You should see this rare book at National Library. The setting up of Printing Press at Serampore by Carey Marshman and Ward required Paper and a Mill was setup at Serampore next to Printing Press, another at Bally,using sunn, fibres of Crotolaria juncea.
