materials and techniques of kalighat paintings: pigment analysis of nine paintings from the...

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Materials and techniques of Kalighat paintings:pigment analysis of nine paintings from thecollections of the Victoria and Albert MuseumMichael Wheeler a , Lucia Burgio b & Michelle Shulman ca Senior Paper Conservator Victoria and Albert Museum South Kensington, London , SW72RL , UKb Senior Object Analysis Scientist Victoria and Albert Museum South Kensington, London ,SW7 2RL , UK E-mail:c Associate Professor of Chemistry Saint Mary's College of California 1928 St. Mary's RdMoraga California, CA , 94575 , USA E-mail:Published online: 04 Jan 2012.

To cite this article: Michael Wheeler , Lucia Burgio & Michelle Shulman (2011) Materials and techniques of Kalighatpaintings: pigment analysis of nine paintings from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Journal of theInstitute of Conservation, 34:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/19455224.2011.607769

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Michael Wheeler, Lucia Burgio and Michelle Shulman

Materials and techniques of Kalighat paintings:pigment analysis of nine paintings from thecollections of the Victoria and Albert Museum

This article is dedicated to the memory of Christine Mackay ACR, Senior PaperConservator at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. She jointly organized andcurated the exhibition entitled ‘Kalighat Icons. Paintings from 19th CenturyCalcutta’.

Keywords

Kalighat paintings; Raman microscopy; X-ray fluorescence; pigments; non-destructive analysis

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has a large collection of paintings fromthe Indian subcontinent, numbering over 6000 works on paper, cloth, mica andpalm leaf. Included in this is a comprehensive collection of folk art, includingBengali scroll paintings and approximately 600 Kalighat paintings and hand-coloured woodcut prints—one of the largest collections of these paintingsoutside India. A travelling exhibition entitled ‘Kalighat Paintings’, consistingof 80 Kalighat paintings from the V&A collections, toured Indian venues in2011 and 2012. Pigment analysis was carried out on nine of the works selectedfor the exhibition using a number of non-destructive techniques, includingultraviolet photography, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and Ramanmicroscopy. This article presents the results of these analyses.

The works selected for this study represent some of the different subjectgenres and span the time periods covered by the exhibition (Fig. 1). Thescope of the current study is necessarily limited, covering as it does onlynine paintings which were part of the exhibition.

The paints and paper of Kalighat paintings have been studied previouslyby Mackay and Sarkar, whose findings relate to Kalighat paintings in theNational Museum of Wales collection.1 They used energy dispersiveX-ray spectrometry (SEM EDS) and polarized light microscopy (PLM) toidentify pigments.

The purpose of this research at the V&A was to identify both modern syn-thetic pigments and inorganic pigments to see if there was any correlationbetween the palette used by scroll painters working in rural Bengal in theearly nineteenth century and the urban painters of Kalighat. As theseurban works were produced for sale at a very modest price, it was necessaryto use cheap and readily available pigments which were both attractive inappearance and of high density to give these works the graphic impactthat characterizes them. The dating of Kalighat paintings on stylisticgrounds alone is very approximate; therefore, it was hoped that the presenceof certain pigments might help with establishing a more accurate chronology.What has been difficult to establish, however, is the exact date at whichcertain pigments were first imported into India. Information uncovered bySarkar and Mackay showed that the first specialist paint shop was openedin Kolkata by N.C. Dutt in 1842, which was taken over by the Laha familyin 1872 (now G.C. Laha).2 Although many of the company’s accountsremained in existence, records regarding exact dates of import of particularpigments were not available.

(Received 28 February 2011; Accepted 21 July 2011)

1 Christine Mackay and Aditi NathSarkar, ‘Kalighat Pats: an Examinationof Techniques and Materials’, in Scienti-

fic Research on the Pictorial Arts of Asia:Proceedings of the Second Forbes Sym-posium at the Freer Gallery of Art, ed.Paul Jett, John Winter, and BlytheMcCarthy (London: Archetype, 2005),135–42.

2 Mackay and Sarkar, ‘Kalighat Pats’.

Journal of the Institute of Conservation

Vol. 34, No. 2, September 2011, 173–185

ISSN 1945-5224 print/ISSN 1945-5232 online

# 2011 Icon, The Institute of Conservation

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Historical backgroundA core group of early Kalighat paintings dating from 1830–50 were given tothe V&A by Rudyard Kipling in 1917. He presented the museum with aseries of watercolour paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses that hadbeen collected by his father Lockwood Kipling, while Principal of theLahore School of Art. The largest acquisitions, however, were made inthe period from 1950–53 encompassing collections from W.G. Archer andother donors. The pictures were painted by patuas, or village artists, atKalighat, Kolkata and had been produced for mass sale to pilgrims visitingthe Kalighat temple. The Kalighat temple is a shrine dedicated to the Hindugoddess Kali and the word ghat literally means ‘bathing place’. Although

Fig. 1 The nine Kalighat paintings analysed in the present study, from left to right: Woman

Selling Fish (I.S. 215-1950); Two Fighting Sepoys (I.S. 211-1950); Courtesan with Peacock (I.S. 247-1953); Elokeshi Meets the Mahant at the Tarakeshwar Shrine (I.M. 2_86-1917); Hand with FreshwaterShrimp (I.S. 469-1950); Elokeshi Offering Betel Leaf to Mahant (I.M 137-1914); Krishna Stealing

Clothes (I.S 470-1950); Infant Krishna Nursed by Jasoda (I.S. 40-1932); Freshwater Prawn (I.S. 2-1954).

174 Wheeler, Burgio and Shulman

Journal of the Institute of Conservation Vol. 34 No. 2 September 2011

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the current structure only dates from 1809, the significance of the site goesback many hundreds of years. The temple is probably the origin of thename of the present city of Kolkata.

Kalighat paintings are characterized by bold, often simplified forms withcurving lines and large areas of unmixed colour. W.G. Archer, a formerKeeper of the Indian Department at the V&A, wrote that ‘the Kalighatstyle was a by product of the British connection’.3 Current knowledge ofthe social history of Bengal and recent research by Dr Jyotindra Jain hasled to a deeper understanding of the cultural and social historical signifi-cance of these images.4 The artistic style of the paintings owes much tothe narrative scrolls produced in rural Bengal and Bihar using paper andwater-based media. It was also influenced by the ‘pratinas’ made by thepotters of Kumortuli—these would be painted by the patuas at festivalperiods in a similar style to that of Kalighat paintings. This is an indigenoustradition that grew up quite independently of the European influx intoKolkata.

Kalighat painting is also readily distinguishable from the native traditionof miniature painting that had developed from the sultanate and Mughaltraditions of manuscript illustration. The subject matter of miniature paint-ings is largely concerned with the activities and preoccupations of the elitesurrounding the Mughal and princely courts of India. By contrast, Kalighatpainting took as its subject matter stories from the Hindu epics, such as theRamayana, and also the daily life of commoners.

The urban audiences at Kalighat were mobile, with transient interests.Influenced by the different art forms around them and the need to workquickly, the patuas abandoned their linear narrative style in favour ofsingle pictures involving one or two figures. The backgrounds were leftplain, all non-essential details were eliminated and basic combinations ofcolours were used. This simple exercise in paring down composition, lineand colour created the key characteristics of the Kalighat genre andenabled the patuas to rapidly increase their productivity.

Originally produced as souvenirs for pilgrims to the Kalighat temple inKolkata, the style originated from rural Bengal in an area where artistswere already producing narrative paintings in water-based media for amass audience rather than a cultural elite. The genre grew out of a needfor rapidly produced images which could be readily understood by amass market. This market dictated that paints and colours had to becheap and readily available. As the commercial centre of India, Kolkataserved as the principal point of import and export of most goods fromand to Europe. Commercially prepared artists’ paints were not generallyavailable prior to 1850 in India. European artists brought their own paint-ing materials with them, or prepared their own paints from scratch fromwhatever was available locally. The patuas who painted the Kalighatimages were a mixture of Hindus and Muslims who came from villagesin Northern Bengal, especially in the area surrounding Murshidabad inthe Midnapore district. The tradition of painting from these villagesrelied heavily on whatever pigments or dyes were available locally.These included many vegetable dyes and plant extracts that were madeinto paints by being mixed with a variety of different binding media,including one made from Tamarind seed and also a natural gum fromthe bel fruit (Bengal quince).5 The patua scroll painters migrated fromthis part of rural Bengal to the growing metropolis of Kolkata, whichexpanded rapidly due to the commerce principally generated by theBritish settlers in the southern part of the city from the mid eighteenthcentury onwards. The artists who migrated to the city became makersand painters of terracotta images that were also produced as souvenirsfor pilgrims visiting the Kalighat shrine in Kolkata. A limited range of

3 W.G. Archer, Kalighat Paintings(London: HMSO, 1971).

4 J. Jain, Kalighat Painting—Images from aChanging World (Delhi: Mapin, 1999), 22.

5 Jain, Khalighat Painting.

Materials and techniques of Kalighat paintings: pigment analysis of nine paintings from the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum 175


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pigments was used in the painting of these clay images, and these appearto be often modern, inorganic pigments, such as chrome yellow or ironoxide derivatives.

It is interesting to note that when the patuas settled in Kolkata they beganto adopt a palette that largely made use of modern synthetically producedpigments in place of some of the dyestuffs previously used to paint patuascrolls.

Painting methods—methods of producing multiple imagesIn the beginning, paintings were copied by hand:

‘Figures were outlined in pencil [Fig. 2] before the base colour was swiftlyapplied in broad wet strokes. A darker hue was added to obtain the sculpturalvolume [Fig. 3]; in the most skilful hands this was applied before the base coatwas dry to prevent tidemarks. Silver ornamentation was added last of all usinga paint made from colloidal tin [Fig. 4].’6

Lithographic printed outlines were used for later examples and were foundon a number of paintings in the V&A collection examined by the authors(see detail photograph of Kali IS.3-1955, Fig. 5). By the end of the nineteenthcentury woodcuts that were hand coloured became popular and could beproduced rapidly in larger quantities. These woodcut images were handcoloured with transparent paints and inks that allowed the printedimage underneath to be clearly seen. Two of the Kalighat imagessampled during pigment analysis are good examples of this type ofimage. The bold printed outline depicting Krishna Stealing Clothes (I.S 470-1950) was embellished with washes of pale red and turquoise transparentcolours (Fig. 6a). The background is further enhanced with a very faintwash of a pale yellow dye, which is possibly Indian Yellow, as it fluorescedstrongly under ultraviolet light (Fig. 6b). Hand with Freshwater Shrimp (IS.496-1950) is also an example of a hand-coloured woodcut print datedc. 1890.

Examination of two of the earliest Kalighat images selected for analysis(Woman Selling Fish: IS. 215-1950 and Two Fighting Sepoys: IS 211-1950) hasrevealed that preliminary marks were made on the paper with pencilbefore the application of the main areas of colour. This was presumablyto help with the accurate placement of areas of colour and supports theidea that the painters worked in a production line passing a paintingfrom one to another.

Valuable information about the Kalighat artists’ methods of working canbe gathered by studying several unfinished works in the collection of the

Fig. 2 Detail of Woman Selling Fish

(IS 215-1950) showing preliminarypencil marks.

Fig. 4 Detail of Courtesan with Peacock (I.S. 247-1953) showing the use of tin to mimic silverjewellery.

Fig. 3 Detail of Two Fighting Sepoys (IS. 211-1950)showing use of indigo on Prussian blue forshading and volume purposes on trousers.

6 Christine Mackay and Aditi NathSarkar, Kalighat Icons—Paintings from

19th Century Calcutta (Cardiff: NationalMuseum of Wales, 1999).



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V&A, such as Unfinished sketch of Man and Wife by Nibraran Chandra Ghosh(IS 32-1952).

‘The various stages of completion of paintings inform us how first a pencildrawing was done and then the face and exposed limbs were coloured, onecolour at a time. The final outlines and fine details were completed at theend. Remarkably, the same method was used by patua painters to paint clayfigures fashioned by potters.’7

A studio of four or five artists could produce several hundred images in aday by this method, one person applying each colour before passing thepainting onto the next artist. The master artist would add the finaltouches to details such as the faces and apply paint made from powderedtin in a gum Arabic solution. It is unclear if stencils were ever used tofacilitate the accurate placement of colour on the paper. The authorshave so far not found any evidence to support this theory, although theclose similarity of different paintings indicates that the process of paintingwas highly developed. Pattern books of stock images of popular subjectswere used to guide the painters. An example of such a pattern book can befound in the collections of the Gurusaday Museum in Kolkata. Occasion-ally it is possible to find several different versions of the same image,albeit with slight variations in colour or tonality. In most cases,however, the colours are applied without any obvious mixing or modu-lation.

Printing did not develop in northern India until the last quarter of theeighteenth century. It had begun earlier in the south where the Portuguesehad set up a printing press in 1556 for missionary purposes.8 In north Indiaunder the British, printing first developed for administrative and scholarlypurposes. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, lithographyreached India and, by the mid nineteenth century, several presses hadbeen established. Only lithography of a very simple and rapid kind wassometimes used. The Kalighat painters adopted lithography in the 1840s

Fig. 6 Krishna Stealing Clothes (IS. 470-1950): (a) overall view; (b) under ultraviolet light.

Fig. 5 Detail of The Goddess Kali (IS.3-1955), Kolkata 1865. This painting wasnot part of the group of nine worksselected for analysis but it shows veryclearly the lithographic printed outlines.

7 Jain, Khalighat Painting, 22.

8 Mildred Archer, Indian Popular Paint-ing (London: HMSO, 1977), 159–62.



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to 1860s, although they continued to also use free-hand copying untilthe beginning of the twentieth century. A faint outline was printed andthe main subject was then painted by hand.

Woodcuts were a far more popular method of reproduction, since thematerials were cheap and readily available. The technique was also usedfor the mass production of cheap pictures that villagers or city dwellerscould pin up in their houses—a development contemporaneous with andparallel to Kalighat painting. Like Kalighat paintings, the subject mattersof the woodcuts were chiefly religious. Most popular of all were the pic-tures of Krishna, his childhood adventures and his life with Radha andthe milk maids. Everyday subjects were also popular, such as the lives offamous courtesans, topical events like the Tarekesh war murder trial andthe antics of the middle class Indians who had adopted Europeanmanners (the babus).

Scientific analysis of pigmentsThe reasons for embarking on the present analysis were to assist with therather vague notions of dating these paintings based on stylistic evidencealone, and to inform current and future conservation practice by accuratelyidentifying pigments of different origins. Conservation treatment of theseworks is often made more difficult as a result of the extreme solubility ofthe pigments in both water and organic solvents. It was felt important tobe able to identify which pigments were particularly susceptible to bleed-ing and offsetting during treatments such as backing removal and stainreduction.

The methods chosen for the scientific analysis of the paintings were non-destructive and non-intrusive, therefore ensuring that no sampling wasneeded. As the paintings were not allowed to travel outside the museumbefore the exhibition, only analytical techniques directly available in theScience Section at the V&A were used. This fact, together with the strict pro-hibition to sample, meant that the organic dyes present on the paintingscould not be investigated as thoroughly as would have been desirable.The nine paintings chosen for analysis during the recent study at theV&A were selected because they span the period of the nineteenthcentury and included two examples of hand-coloured woodcuts. Thesenine paintings were chosen by the curator of the exhibition in consultationwith the conservation department staff and other curatorial specialists withthe Asian Department at the V&A. One of the additional criteria used forthe choice of the paintings was to have a comprehensive selection of allthe colours and hues visible to the naked eye.

The paintings were analysed preliminarily by X-ray fluorescence (XRF),which provided a detailed map of the chemical elements present in eachcoloured area. Ultraviolet photography of the paintings was also under-taken and, finally, Raman microscopy analysis. The latter technique pro-vided the unambiguous molecular fingerprint of most of the coloursanalysed.9

Experimental procedure1. X-ray fluorescence (XRF)A Bruker ArtTAX XRF spectrometer was used in air, set at a voltage of 50 kVand a current of 600 mA. Each spectrum was acquired over a live time of100s. The area analysed by XRF in each experiment measured approxi-mately 0.2 mm across: this high special resolution allowed analysis offine details on the paintings without too much interference from surround-ing materials.

9 I.M. Bell, R.J.H. Clark, and P.J. Gibbs,‘Raman Spectroscopic Library ofNatural and Synthetic Pigments (pre-�1850 AD)’, Spectrochimica Acta A 53A(1997): 2159–79; L. Burgio and R.J.H.Clark, ‘Library of FT-Raman Spectra ofPigments, Minerals, Pigment Mediaand Varnishes, and Supplement toExisting Library of Raman Spectra ofPigments with Visible Excitation’, Spec-

trochimica Acta Part A 57 (2001): 1491–521.



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2. UV photographyA Sinar 54 digital camera back was used.

3. Raman microscopyAll Raman experiments were performed with a Horiba Jobin-Yvon XploRAspectrometer, equipped with two diode lasers, a red 638 nm and a green 532nm. The instrument was calibrated every day using a silicon standard, andsome spectra were also calibrated using the reference bands of a neon lamp.All paintings were positioned on the Raman microscope’s stage and exam-ined using a ×50 microscope objective, the spatial resolution achieved wasapproximately 2 mm and the power at the sample never exceeded 1 mW.

Analytical resultsThe Raman microscopy analysis of the paintings, together with the resultsobtained by XRF, has revealed that the majority of the paints were madefrom inorganic pigments, although organic colourants, such as indigo,were also detected. Evidence of several organic dyes could also be found,although no conclusive identification could be achieved due to their veryhigh fluorescence.

A synopsis of the Raman and XRF results is shown in Tables 1 and 2 and aselection of the Raman spectra collected is shown in Figures 7 and 8.

1. Yellow pigmentsIndian yellow, chrome yellow and one or more organic yellow dyes werepresent in the paintings examined.

Indian yellow, magnesium euxanthate, C19H16O11Mg.5H2O,10 was usedextensively in India by miniature painters from the sixteenth centuryonwards but was not found on any of the paintings analysed, exceptperhaps on one of the woodcuts (Krishna Stealing Clothes, IS. 470-1950).

Table 1 Synopsis of pigment identification by Raman microscopy.

I.S. 215-

1950

Woman

Selling Fish

I.S. 211-

1950

Two

Fighting

Sepoys

I.S. 247-

1953

Courtesan

with

Peacock

I.M. 2_86-1917

Elokeshi Meets

the Mahant at

the Tarakeshwar

Shrine

I.S. 469-1950

Hand with

Freshwater

Shrimp

I.M 137-

1914

Elokeshi

Offering

Betel Leaf

to Mahant

I.S 470-1950

Krishna

Stealing

Clothes

I.S. 40-1932

Infant

Krishna

Nursed by

Jasoda

I.S. 2-1954

Freshwater

Prawn

Date 1800–50 1860–70 1865–70 c. 1875 1880–90 c. 1890 c. 1890 c. 1900 c. 1940

Chromeyellow

3 3 3 3 x 3 x 3 x

Red lead 3 3 3 3 x 3 x 3 3

Prussianblue

3 3 3 3 x 3 x 3 x

Ultramarineblue

3 (paper) 3 (paper) 3 (paper) 3 (paper) 3 (paper) x 3 (paper) x 3 (paper andpainting)

Hematite 3 3 3 3 x 3 x x 3

Carbon 3 3 3 3 x 3 3 3 3

Indigo 3 3 x x x x x x xOrganic dyes Red dye x x Red dye Stained

paperRed dyeYellow dye

Yellow dyeRed dye

Stainedpaper(yellow)

Red dye

Red dye

10 N.S. Baer et al., ‘Indian Yellow’, inArtists’ Pigments, A Handbook of TheirHistory and Characteristics, vol. 1, ed.Robert L. Feller (Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 1986), 17–36.



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No Raman spectrum of Indian yellow could be obtained from this woodcut,but the appearance of the yellow wash and its marked fluorescence underUV illumination are good circumstantial evidence that a diluted wash ofIndian yellow was, indeed, used. This is probably because it was a rela-tively expensive pigment that required considerable skill in preparationin order to obtain the pure colour. The mass-produced nature of theKalighat images dictated a different set of priorities, as it was vital thatpaints used were cheap and readily available in order to keep down thecost of the finished product.

Table 2 Synopsis of XRF results and their possible interpretation.

I.S. 215-1950

Woman

Selling Fish

I.S. 211-1950

Two

Fighting

Sepoys

I.S. 247-1953

Courtesan

with

Peacock

I.M. 2_86-1917

Elokeshi Meets

the Mahant at

the Tarakeshwar

Shrine

I.S. 469-1950

Hand with

Freshwater

Shrimp

I.M 137-1914

Elokeshi

Offering

Betel Leaf to

Mahant

I.S 470-1950

Krishna

Stealing

Clothes

I.S. 40-1932

Infant

Krishna

Nursed by

Jasoda

I.S. 2-1954

Freshwater

Prawn

Date 1800–50 1860–70 1865–70 c. 1875 1880–90 c. 1890 c. 1890 c. 1900 c. 1940

Chromeyellow

Cr, Pb Cr, Pb Cr, Pb Cr, Pb x Cr, Pb x Cr, Pb x

Red lead [Pb] Pb Pb Pb x Pb x Pb PbPrussian

blueFe Fe Fe Fe x Fe x Fe

Hematite Fe Fe Fe Fe x Fe x x FeMetallic

tin3 3 3 3 x 3 x x x

Bariumwhite

Ba (greenarea)

Ba∗ (green,white andpinkareas)

Ba∗ (greenarea)

Ba (green area) x Ba (greenarea)

x Ba∗ Ba∗

Zincwhite

Zn∗ Zn ∗ Zn∗ Zn∗ x x Zn∗ x Zn∗

∗determined to be in background paper (trace)

Fig. 7 Raman spectra from the Two Fighting Sepoys: carbon black,indigo, Prussian blue and ultramarine blue.

Fig. 8 Raman spectra from the Two Fighting Sepoys: red lead, chromeyellow and hematite.



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Another yellow pigment, chrome yellow, lead(II) chromate PbCrO4,11

was used far more widely and was identified on six of the paintings exam-ined. Its relatively low cost and high opacity made it very suitable for paint-ing the bold images that are associated with the Kalighat tradition. Chromeyellow was available in Europe from the beginning of the nineteenthcentury onwards, so it seems likely that it was imported into Indiashortly after this date, as it offered a good alternative to arsenic-based pig-ments, such as orpiment.12 It was also fairly lightfast, had a high tintingstrength and excellent opacity. Chrome yellow was also occasionallydetected in association with Prussian blue, therefore suggesting the pres-ence of the pigment referred to sometimes as chrome green.13 The particlesof chrome yellow seen in all the paintings are very small and finely divided.Unfortunately, due to the fact that chrome yellow was used as a pigmentfrom the early nineteenth century, its presence on the paintings could notbe used to help to refine their dating.

A diluted yellow dye is possibly present on some of the paintings but itfailed to give any Raman spectrum, while several yellow areas were noticedto give rise to significant fluorescence. Mackay had also investigatedyellows used for skin tones on Kalighat paintings in the collection of theNational Museum of Wales, but was unable to identify conclusivelywhich dyes were used,14 although this author suspected that turmeric intrace quantities was present.

2. Blue pigmentsThree blue materials, Prussian blue, lazurite and indigo, were identifiedunambiguously by Raman microscopy of the paintings analysed.

Prussian blue, the earliest of the modern synthetic colours, producedcommercially in Europe from about 1720 onwards, has been used exten-sively in six of the nine paintings sampled in this study.15 It seems likelythat Prussian blue was chosen due to its high tinting strength, relativeopacity and ready availability in Kolkata.

Indigo, an organic dyestuff of formula C16H10N2O2,16 would have beenreadily available to artists in Bengal, but is used comparatively sparinglyin the group of paintings studied and is confined mainly to areas ofshading on the two paintings attributed to the first half of the nineteenthcentury. Indigo, due to its relative transparency, lent itself to being usedas a glazing colour. This can be seen in the picture of two fighting Sepoyswhere it has been used to delineate areas of shading on the jacket of oneman and on the trousers of another (Fig. 3). The presence of indigocannot be used to date any of these paintings as it has been identified onIndian palm leaf paintings from the twelfth century onwards and wasalso widely used by miniature painters and by the scroll painters of ruralBengal.

The Raman spectrum of lazurite was also detected in most of the paint-ings. The spectrum alone, if collected with the laser wavelengths availableat the V&A, cannot reveal if the pigment is synthetic ultramarine blue or if itcame from the natural semi-precious stone lapis lazuli.17 However, the par-ticles seen in this study are very small (c. 1–3 mm across), of uniform colourand round shape. This suggests an artificial method of preparation ratherthan mechanical grinding of the natural mineral. This pigment wasfound only as an optical whitener for the paper and not as a pigment/colour in its own right. Only in one case is there some evidence thatsmall amounts of it may have been used as a proper blue pigment (thebody of the prawn in Freshwater Prawn IS. 2-1954). Assuming that theartificial pigment was used, its first date of manufacture, 1828, becomesthe terminus post quem for all the paintings that contain it.

11 H. Kuhn and M. Curran, ‘ChromeYellow and Other Chromate Pigments’,in Feller, Artists’ Pigments, 187–204.

12 Kuhn and Curran, ‘Chrome Yellow’,187–204.

13 B.H. Berrie, ‘Prussian Blue’, inArtists’ Pigments. A Handbook of TheirHistory and Characteristics, vol. 3, ed.E.W. Fitzhugh (Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 1997), 191–217.

14 Mackay and Sarkar, ‘Kalighat Pats’.

15 J. Kirby, ‘Fading and Colour Changeof Prussian Blue: Occurrences andEarly Reports’, National Gallery TechnicalBulletin 14 (1993): 62–71.

16 H. Schweppe, ‘Indigo and Woad’, inFitzhugh, Artists’ Pigments, 81–107.

17 J. Plesters, ‘Ultramarine Blue:Natural and Artificial’, in Artists’ Pig-

ments. A Handbook of Their History andCharacteristics, vol. 2, ed. A. Roy(Oxford: Oxford University Press,1993), 37–66.



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3. Red and orange pigmentsRed lead and hematite were identified among the red and orange materialson the paintings. A dark red and a crimson colour could not be identifiedand are believed to be organic dyes.

Red lead, lead tetroxide Pb3O4, was identified conclusively on seven outof nine of the paintings analysed. It was cheap, readily available as a primerfor metals and gives a pleasing orange-red colour with high opacity. Redlead was part of the traditional palette of miniature painters from theMughal period onwards and was produced in India from the mineral cin-nabar as well as by synthetic means. Its use was gradually discontinuedfrom the second half of the twentieth century. Because of this, its presencecannot be used to help with the date of the paintings.

Closer inspection of the painting of Two Fighting Sepoys (IS. 211-1950)reveals that this is the only painting exhibiting extensive degradation,with an area of uneven grey-black discoloration on the jacket of thefigure on the left, which was most likely not part of the artist’s originalintention (Fig. 9). The presence of lead-based pigments in the cassocksuggests that the dark material is a black lead degradation product, suchas lead(IV) oxide or lead sulfide, although no Raman spectrum could beobtained from those areas except that of the underlying red lead. The dis-tribution and the shape of the darkened areas suggest that a whitepigment, such as lead white, might have been used to paint the stripeson the jacket, indicating the gold brocade of the uniform. This has nowturned black, possibly as a result of exposure to pollution,18 or as a resultof being stored in close proximity to other paintings with significantareas of sulfur-containing pigments.

Very small particles of hematite, iron oxide Fe3O4, were identified fre-quently in the paintings. Their uniform appearance and small particlesize suggests a synthetic origin (Mars reds, as synthetic samples of hematitewere often called, were widely used during the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies),19 although it cannot be excluded that a natural sample of hema-tite was ground very finely and used here. As iron oxide pigments wereused since prehistoric times, the presence of hematite cannot be used todate the paintings.

4. Other materialsCarbon black was also detected by Raman microscopy. As it was used sinceantiquity, it cannot be used to date the paintings. The black pigment usedfor these works was traditionally made by burning mustard oil and collect-ing the deposits on an earthenware bowl.20 Modern-day painters in thepatua tradition in Bengal use a black gathered from the soot of lorryexhaust pipes.21

Metallic tin was also identified on five of the nine paintings. Tin has beenused in Indian paintings of various different schools from the eighteenthcentury onwards, often as a substitute for silver. It is occasionally used todepict water or a reflection in a mirror. Unlike silver, tin is not prone to tarn-ishing, is readily available throughout India and is quickly and easily madeinto a satisfactory paint in comparison with gold or silver prepared frommetallic leaf (shell gold/silver). It is also comparatively cheap to produceand is attractive to the viewer. Kalighat artists used tin extensively toembellish their paintings and to replicate the surface effects of jewels andpearls. This can be seen clearly on closer inspection of Courtesan withPeacock (IS. 247-1953), as the jewellery around the neck of the courtesandepicted is composed of thick applications of a paint made from tin (Fig. 4).

No true green was used in this set of paintings, but rather a mixture ofPrussian blue and a diluted organic yellow dye which did not yield anyRaman spectrum.

Fig. 9 Detail of discoloured area on thejacket of the left-hand figure of TwoFighting Sepoys.

18 G.D. Smith, A. Derbyshire, andR.J.H. Clark, ‘In Situ SpectroscopicDetection of PbS on a BlackenedManuscript Illumination by RamanMicroscopy’, Studies in Conservation 47(2002): 250–6.

19 C. Fuller, ‘Natural Colored IronOxide Pigments’, in Pigment Handbook,2nd ed., ed. P. Lewis (New York: JohnWiley & Sons, 1988), 281–6.

20 Chandra Mote, The Technique of

Mughal Painting (Lucknow, 1959).

21 http://www.banglanatak.com(accessed July 1, 2011).



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http://www.banglanatak.com

The analysis of the paintings by XRF uncovered the widespread use of abarium-containing material and a zinc-based one, not necessarily usedtogether. This suggests the presence of barium white (barium sulphate,BaSO4) and zinc white (ZnO) and/or zinc sulfide (ZnS). Where zinc andbarium were detected together, the nineteenth-century pigment lithopone(a mixture of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide) could be present.22 If litho-pone is present, the painting it was used on must date from the 1870s,which is the first date of manufacture of the pigment. Barium sulfateexists as a mineral (barite) but it was not produced synthetically andwidely used as a pigment until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Zinc oxide was not used as a white pigment until the end of theeighteenth century. Unfortunately, no Raman spectrum of barium- orzinc-containing pigments was collected. Zinc white is a very poor Ramanscatterer and gives rise to a very weak signal even in reference samples.No Raman spectrum of zinc white was collected from any of the areasknown to contain zinc. However, circumstantial evidence for the absenceof zinc white was collected when the areas of the paintings containingzinc were viewed under a UV lamp. Zinc oxide (but not zinc sulfide) ischaracterized by a very bright, green-yellow fluorescence: no such fluor-escence was seen on the paintings.

ConclusionsA number of pigments were identified by Raman microscopy, includingPrussian blue, indigo, ultramarine blue, chrome yellow, hematite, redlead and carbon.

A few of the colours present on the paintings did not yield any Ramanspectra and gave rise to a very high fluorescence. These included a trans-parent yellow wash, a green, a deep red, a purple and two types of pinkmaterials. It is unclear if at least some of these compounds may be ofnatural origin (organic dyes). Some or all of them may be part of thegroup of synthetic dyes that were developed from the middle of the nine-teenth century in Europe. No crucial date markers were discovered onany of the paintings, although some modern materials do confirm a nine-teenth-century production date for some of the paintings. No twentieth-century pigments, such as titanium white or phthalocyanine blue orgreen, were detected either.

The lack of data concerning the exact dates at which various modern syn-thetic pigments first arrived in India have made exact dates of productionfor the paintings difficult to determine. However, it is clear that in mostcases the urban patuas used whatever paints and paper were available tothem at the time. Many of the dyes used by the scroll painters in the coun-tryside were replaced with modern synthetic pigments.

The results of this study have been useful in determining which pigmentswere used by the urban artists and have helped to determine the relativelight stability of these paintings. Recent practical work carried out in prep-aration for the 2011 Kalighat exhibition highlighted the particular water sen-sitivity of some of the synthetic red dyes used. Examination of works whichhave been previously lined also often indicates that the tin pigment, if sub-jected to excessive moisture, has a tendency to lose its lustre, taking on arather unattractive greyish appearance. In many cases it has proved judiciousto avoid moisture-based treatments wherever possible, although in caseswhere lining has proved essential, the authors have found that traditionallining with wheat starch paste and Japanese paper is possible as long asmoisture is introduced slowly using Goretex or Sympatex membranes.

Today, it is deeply satisfying to see the practice of Kalighat painting con-tinuing in the villages, and being passed on down the generations in a waythat was not possible during the main part of the twentieth century. The

22 Nicholas Eastaugh et al., Pigment

Compendium (Oxford: Elsevier, 2004).



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environment of the Kalighat temple is no longer home to the patua familiesand communities that once made a living from their art, but rural patuas arestill keeping the tradition alive alongside scroll painting in the districts sur-rounding Kolkata, especially in the village of Naya in Midnapore district.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the helpful assistance ofSuhashini Sinha, Aditi Nath Sarkar, Christine Mackay and JamesStevenson, V&A photographic manager, for his help with theUV photography.

Abstract

Kalighat paintings were produced in Kolkata in the eastern part ofIndia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thesehand-painted images were produced in large numbers with avariety of water-based, opaque colours on paper. Images wereduplicated by copying by hand with a team of artists employed toadd colours and decoration to bold outlines indicated with pencilby the master artist or, occasionally, in the mid part of the nineteenthcentury were printed by lithography.A travelling exhibition of 80 Kalighat paintings from the collectionsof the Victoria and Albert Museum toured Indian venues in 2011 and2012. Pigment analysis has been carried out on nine of the worksselected for the exhibition using a number of non-destructive tech-niques, including ultraviolet photography, X-ray fluorescence spec-troscopy and Raman microscopy.Several pigments were identified conclusively by these methods—Prussian blue, ultramarine blue, indigo, red lead, chrome yellowand carbon black. Evidence suggesting that Indian yellow andyellow and red dyes might be present was also collected.

Resume

«Materiaux et techniques des peintures de Kaligat : analyse depigment de neuf peintures des collections du Victoria and AlbertMuseum»Les peintures de Kaligat ont ete produites a Calcutta dans la partieorientale de l’Inde aux dix-neuvieme et debut du vingtieme siecles.Ces images peintes a la main ont ete produites en grand nombreavec une variete de couleurs a l’eau opaques sur papier. Lesimages ont ete dupliquees et copiees a la main par une equiped’artistes employes pour ajouter des couleurs et la decoration,pour souligner les contours indiques au crayon par l’artistemaıtre, ou de temps en temps au milieu du dix-neuvieme siecleont ete lithographiees.Une exposition itinerante de 80 peintures de Kaligat des collectionsdu Victoria and Albert Museum a tourne sur des sites indiens en2011 et 2012. L’analyse des pigments a ete effectuee sur neufœuvres choisies pour l’exposition en utilisant un certain nombrede techniques non-destructives, parmi lesquelles la photographieultra-violette, la spectroscopie de fluorescence X et la microscopieRaman.

Zusammenfassung

,,Materialien und Maltechnik von Kalighat Gemalden: Pigmentana-lyse von neun Gemalden aus den Sammlungen des Victoria undAlbert Museums”Kalighatgemalde entstanden im 19. und fruhen 20. Jahrhundert inKolkata im ostlichen Indien. Diese handgemalten Bilder auf Papier-trager stellte man in grosser Zahl unter Verwendung einer breitenAuswahl von opaken Farben auf Wasserbasis her. Die Bilderwurden mit der Hand kopiert, um sie zu vervielfaltigen, wobeiein Team von Kunstlern Farben und Dekorationen zu starkenUmrisslinien, die meist mit Bleistift von einem Meister vorgezeich-net waren, hinzufugte; wahrend der Mitte des 19. Jhd. wurden dieBilder vereinzelt auch lithographisch gedruckt.

Eine Wanderausstellung von 80 Kalighatbildern aus den Sammlun-gen des Victoria und Albert Museums reist in den Jahren 2011 bis2012 durch Indien. An neun dieser Gemalde wurden mittels einerReihe von nicht-destruktiven Testmethoden wie UV-Photographie,Rontgenfluoreszenzspektroskopie und Raman-Mikroskopie Pig-mentanalysen durchgefuhrt. Eine Reihe von Pigmenten konnte soidentifiziert werden: Berliner Blau, Ultramarinblau, Indigo,Mennige, Chromgelb und Farbruß. Es konnten auch Beweise fureinen eventuellen Gebrauch von Indischgelb und rote sowie gelbeFarbemittel gesammelt werden.

Resumen

“Materiales y tecnicas en las pinturas de Kalighat: analisis de lospigmentos en nueve obras de las colecciones del Museo Victoria yAlberto”Las pinturas Kalighat se realizaron en Calcuta, al este de la India,durante los siglos XIX y principios del XX. Estas imagenes pintadasa mano sobre papel, fueron producidas en grandes cantidades, conuna gran variedad de acuarelas de colores opacos. Las imagenes sereproducıan copiandolas a mano y utilizando un equipo de artistasque anadıan los colores y la decoracion en los contornos que elartista principal habıa indicado con lapiz; o a partir de la mitaddel siglo XIX - ocasionalmente - las obras se imprimieron litografica-mente.Durante 2011 y 2012, una exposicion itinerante de 80 obras deKalighat provenientes de las colecciones del Museo Victoria yAlberto, esta recorriendo diferentes lugares de India. En nueve delas obras seleccionadas para la exposicion se realizaron analisis delos pigmentos utilizando una serie de tecnicas no destructivas,incluyendo la fotografıa ultravioleta, espectroscopia fluorescentede rayos X y microscopıa Raman. El uso de estos metodos permitioidentificar, de forma concluyente, los siguientes pigmentos: azul dePrusia, azul ultramarino, ındigo, rojo cobre, amarillo cromo y negrocarbon. Tambien se recogieron evidencias que sugieren la presenciade Amarillo India y de tintes rojos y amarillos.

Biography

Michael Wheeler has been Senior Paper Conservator at the Victoriaand Albert Museum since 1995. He was a tutor on the RCA/V&AConservation course programme, specializing in Indian and Asianart on paper. He has participated in conservation projects in India,Nepal and Egypt. Graduating from the University of Northumbriawith a Diploma in Paper Conservation in 1984 he worked as apaper conservator in the UK, New Zealand and the USA. In 1991,he was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Paper Conser-vation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has alsoworked as a Conservator of Photographs at The Better Image,New York. Since joining the V&A in 1995 Mike has specialized inthe conservation of paintings and manuscripts from India and theHimalayas. He has trained and worked with many conservatorsfrom public and private art collections in India over the last fifteenyears and spent periods of time working in India advising on thepreservation of collections nationally as well as teaching workshops.Recent projects include the preservation of the archives of filmmaker Satyajit Ray (Kolkata), a two-day workshop at the NehruMemorial Museum (New Delhi) and work for the Sikh Trust at theGolden Temple and Patiala. He is an accredited member of the Insti-tute of Conservation.

Lucia Burgio is the Senior Object Analysis Scientist at the Victoriaand Albert Museum, providing analysis and identification of



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materials and techniques; methods of construction; manufacture;history and possible dating of museum objects. Her research interestsinclude the analysis of pigments, oriental lacquer and other artists’materials and the application of scientific techniques to art and cul-tural heritage issues. She graduated in Chemistry from the Universityof Palermo, Italy, in 1996, completed a PhD degree in chemistry atUniversity College London in 2000 with a thesis on the analysis ofpigments on art objects using Raman microscopy and other tech-niques. After a few months working at ENEA (New Technologies,Energy and Environment Agency) in Italy, she joined the ScienceSection, Conservation Department, at the V&A in 2000 and hasbeen an Honorary Research Fellow at UCL since 2001.

Michelle Shulman has been a Professor of Chemistry at SaintMary’s College in California, USA since 2000. She obtained herPhD in chemistry at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) in1995, gaining expertise in the area of atmospheric aerosol research.

She then did postdoctoral work at Stanford University in environ-mental engineering from 1996–98. As a professor of chemistry sheworks to design and implement experiments that demonstrate herdesire to bring new and interesting pedagogies to the classroom tofurther engage and excite students about chemistry and its broadrange of applications. In particular, she has introduced a series ofnew experiments into chemical instrumentation. In this course, stu-dents analyse an alleged twelfth-century Russian icon painting, ‘The(Arch) Angel with the Golden Hair’ to determine if anachronismsare present. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), polarizing light microscopy(PLM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) andFourier transform infrared microscopy (FTIRM) are used toanalyse the gesso ground layer. FTIR, FTIRM and gas chromato-graphy mass spectrometry (GCMS) are employed to analyse thetempera binder and, finally, XRF and PLM assist in the identificationof the painting’s pigments.

Contact address

Michael WheelerSenior Paper ConservatorVictoria and Albert MuseumSouth KensingtonLondon SW7 2RLUKEmail: [email protected]

Lucia BurgioSenior Object Analysis ScientistVictoria and Albert MuseumSouth KensingtonLondon SW7 2RLUKEmail: [email protected]

Michelle ShulmanAssociate Professor of ChemistrySaint Mary’s College of California1928 St. Mary’s RdMoragaCalifornia CA 94575USAEmail: [email protected]



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materials and techniques of kalighat paintings: pigment analysis of nine paintings from the...

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