Kali, from a Kalighat album

Executed with the fluid brushwork characteristic of Kalighat album paintings, the piece combines vivid pigments, blue skin, a red halo, and a yellow skirt patterned in black, with gold jewelry details. The flat background and stylized figures reflect the popular, narrative-driven aesthetic of 19th‑century Bengal folk art.

Created as part of a Kalighat album, the painting originates from the prolific workshop that produced affordable devotional prints for a broad audience in and around Calcutta. Such albums were circulated among pilgrims and collectors, later entering museum collections through acquisitions of South Asian art.

Kalighat art emerged in the mid‑1800s as a response to urbanization and the demand for accessible religious imagery. Artists blended traditional iconography with contemporary social commentary, making works like this both devotional objects and records of everyday visual culture.

Works from the Kalighat tradition have informed modern understandings of popular Indian visual culture and continue to be studied for their role in bridging elite religious motifs with mass‑produced art forms.