Durga and Mahishasura
1885
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1885
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Durga and Mahishasura is a 1885 paint by Unknown, a Impressionism work, depicting Kalighat, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a woman with four arms standing on a lion. She wears a red sari and a crown, holding weapons in her hands. The lion beneath her looks fierce, with sharp teeth and a striped body. The woman’s face is calm, but her many arms suggest power. The colors are bright—reds, yellows, and greens—with bold outlines. Look up kalighat to see more paintings like this.
The artwork is a painting created in 1885 using opaque watercolour on paper, illustrating the goddess Durga mounted on a lion as she defeats the demon Mahishasura. It was acquired in 1894 from Miss M Steele, whose mother, a Sanskrit scholar at Cambridge, had inherited the piece; Steele noted that her grandmother, who had lived in India, may have originally collected the work.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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