The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah
c. 1890
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.)
Location: not on view
Description
This is an archetypal satirical caricature of an 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.- ?-2003William E. Ward [1922-2004], Solon, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art2003-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Indian Kalighat Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-September 18, 2011).
- {{cite web|title=English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah|url=false|author=|year=c. 1890|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.145