Kalighat Pat Painting Kolkata West Bengal

Kalighat pat painting is a 19th-century urban folk art originating in the neighbourhood of Kalighat in Kolkata, where chitrakar (scroll painter) families migrated from rural Bengal to sell devotional paintings to Kalighat temple pilgrims. The distinctive Kalighat style uses bold brush outlines with flat colour washes to depict Hindu deities, saints, scenes of social satire, and contemporary urban life. The Kalighat style was radically different from both miniature court painting and traditional patua scroll art, pioneering a modernist simplicity that influenced later Bengal School artists. Original Kalighat paintings are held in major museums worldwide including the Victoria and Albert Museum. Contemporary chitrakar families of Naya village near Pingla in Paschim Medinipur continue the Kalighat tradition, selling paintings to collectors and galleries.