Artwork
Krishna painting Radha
Krishna painting Radha is an oil painting by the Cubism Synthetic artist George Keyt. It dates from 1948 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Overview
The oil on canvas work portrays the Hindu deities Krishna and Radada in a scene where Krishna is depicted as an artist, brush in hand, painting Radha’s likeness. Both figures are rendered in vivid garments against a subdued backdrop, their forms outlined in soft gold. The composition merges narrative content from Hindu mythology with a modern visual language.
Subject & Meaning
Krishna and Radha symbolize an ideal of transcendent love within Hindu tradition. By showing Krishna engaged in the act of painting Radha, the image reflects a meta‑artistic meditation on creation, devotion, and the intertwining of divine affection with artistic expression.
Technique & Style
The painting combines elements of early 20th‑century Western modernism with Indian popular art. Angular, partially abstracted planes in Krishna’s figure recall cubist influences, while the simplified contours, enlarged eyes, and curvilinear bodies echo the Kalighat school of Calcutta. Flat areas of colour and bold outlines contribute to a stylised, almost graphic quality.
History & Provenance
Created by Sri Lankan artist George Keyt (1901–1993), the work reflects his lifelong engagement with both Indian literary and visual traditions and his later incorporation of Western avant‑garde idioms. Keyt, educated at Trinity College, Kandy, turned away from the colonial aesthetic of his upbringing to explore indigenous mythological subjects, eventually synthesising them with the cubist and Fauvist vocabularies of Picasso and Matisse.
Context
Keyt’s career unfolded during a period of cultural re‑evaluation in South Asia, when artists sought to reconcile colonial influences with native heritage. The painting exemplifies this synthesis, presenting a popular mythological theme through a visual syntax that bridges local Kalighat motifs and the abstract geometry of European modernism.
Artist & collection
Artist
George Percival Sproule Keyt, (17 April 1901 – 31 July 1993) was a Sri Lankan painter.
