The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 13, 2025
A Couple (from the series Costumes and Professions)
mid-1800s
Overall: 24.1 x 19.9 cm (9 1/2 x 7 13/16 in.)
Location: Not on view
Description
This work was made by Indian artists for a member of the British East India Company. It was painted in the southern style of Company school painting, which is distinguished by its bold outlines, saturated color, and heavy application of gold. The priest on the right bears the sectarian markings of a follower of the Hindu god Vishnu on his forehead, chest, arms, and flag. A 19th-century British inscription on its surviving fly sheet, a protective cover of tissue paper, states that this priest made his living by praying to the “native doorway” early every morning. The survival of this commentary reveals how British collectors used these apparently objective depictions of costumes and professions to implicate Indian holy men in strange or even charlatan behavior.- Indian Gallery 242b Rotation – November 2017-April 2018. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 10, 2017-April 16, 2018).
- {{cite web|title=A Couple (from the series Costumes and Professions)|url=false|author=|year=mid-1800s|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2001.164