A Barber Cleaning the Ear of a Courtesan
Medium
woodcut
Dimensions
painting only: 45.5 × 28.2 cm · secondary support: 50 × 30.3 cm
Classification
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward
Accession Number
2003.118
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Popular Kalighat paintings were made into woodcuts for mass printing and distribution. This image reveals the lifestyle of a new middle class of Indians who prospered under British rule. Holding a fancy hookah for pleasurable smoking, draped with jewels, wearing a glamorous sari, and with a flower tucked in her hair, she has the luxury of going to a barber to have her ears cleaned. The age of mechanical reproduction made a heavy impact on the new Indian middle class during the last decades of th...