Arkivism
English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah
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English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah

c. 1890 · Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

This is an archetypal satirical caricature of a native Indian clerk (babu), a Bengali dapper dandy whose fashion sense combines British and Indian mores with dissonant results. Imitating his British masters, he sits cross-legged on a Victorian chair, holding a hookah, sporting a Prince Albert hairstyle, and wearing European buckled shoes. His posture models popular photo studio portraits of the time. Kalighat painters ridiculed these vain babus as foppish nouveau riche.

Cleveland Museum of Art’s own description
Credit lineEnglish Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah, c. 1890. Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat. Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper; secondary support: 48 x 29.5 cm (18 7/8 x 11 5/8 in.); painting only: 45.7 x 28 cm (18 x 11 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward, 2003.145
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