Page:Art-manufactures of India.djvu/34

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Art-manufactures of India.

a pot of butter in one arm, and a milkmaid on each side dallying with him, was sent from Madras to the Calcutta International Exhibition. The accessories in this picture were all pasted on. Price, R132.

Until recently, a superior kind of water-colour paintings was executed in Bengal by a class of people called the Patuás, whose trade also was to paint idols for worship. These paintings were done with minute care, and considerable taste was evinced in the combination and arrangement of colours. The industry is on the decline, owing to cheaper coloured lithograph representations of Gods and Goddesses turned out by the ex-students of the Calcutta School of Art having appeared in the market. A painting in the old style can still be had, by order, at a price of R10 and upwards.

The Patuás now paint rude "daubs" which are sold by thousands in stalls near the shrine of Kálighát in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, as also in other places of pilgrimage and public fairs. The subjects as usual are mythological, but of late they have taken to making pictures representing a few comical features of Indian life. Such pictures are generally sold at a price ranging from a farthing to a penny. The following is a typical list:—

Goddess Káli 1/2d.
Rádhá-Krishna 1/2d.
Jagadhátri, the Mother of the World 1/2d.
Goddess of Learning 1/2d.
Woman fetching water 1/2d.
Milking 1/2d.

The students of the School of Art also turn out water-colour paintings in the European style. The head of a religious ascetic, with his beard and beads, is for them a very attractive subject, as also the faces of different castes and different nationalities. They