The Venuses at Home

Subba Ghosh’s The Venuses at Home introduces us to a domestic setting in which two women from different generations sit beside each other, listening to a gramophone. However, there’s an uneasiness between the two figures. The usual accoutrements of a drawing room surround them and include a picture of a couple kissing each other, creating an edginess between the two. Has the picture of a kissing couple something to do with it? Do the two women share a common past, vis-a-vis the picture? Besides throwing open-ended questions like these, Ghosh’s printmaking—like his drawings—serves to emphasise his study of anatomy as well.