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https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=F2DEF6C762541D9B492581542CB85858E1A9213D9AB80B7FD92DE37BC6CBA2DF&s=24247294&se=429512564&v=0&f=2003.145_o2.jpg
Mar 12, 2014
English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah
English Babu (Native Indian Clerk) Holding a Hookah
c. 1890
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.)
Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward 2003.145
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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.
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