Toilette scene

Most Kalighat pats were limited to sacred imagery for pilgrims to carry back home from Calcutta, but over a period of time, the patuas began to paint secular themes as well. The pats with their simple outlines and faint shading brought the first brush of Western art to bear on a local style thereby enriching the hybrid art practice that had begun to flourish in Calcutta. The Toilette scene is a redux of the shringara rasa-themed Indian miniature paintings with folk stylisation executed under Western influence, with elements of each style distinct in an overall synthesised composition.