Style combination · Contrasts

Kalighat Pat × Persian Popular Narrative

Kalighat pats isolate one bold brushed figure on bare paper; the Persian lithograph crowds a whole hatched scene into a frame inside verse columns. Choose between the open single figure and the packed narrative page.

From the research on Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)

Mix them and make something Kalighat Pat Persian Popular Narrative

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kalighat Pat, their arrangement from Kalighat Pat, the finish from Kalighat Pat. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)

Type from Persian Popular Narrative: Brush & pen calligraphy
Hand-lettering
Colour from Persian Popular Narrative: Monochrome
Full polychrome
Form from Kalighat Pat: Stylised figuration
Distortion & exaggeration
Composition from Kalighat Pat: Isolated object
Single focal point

Persian Popular Narrative avoids isolated object: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Surface from Kalighat Pat: Painterly brushwork
Carved line

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Persian Popular Narrative

Square

Rakkas, standing in for Nastaʿlīq written by the lithographic scribes (kātebs), for verse and prose

Text · Kalighat Pat

The bazaar art of nineteenth-century Calcutta: watercolours sold to pilgrims by patua painters at the Kalighat temple, and the cheap woodcuts and metal engravings that Battala presses printed for chapbooks and almanacs. A single plaque-like figure stands on unpainted paper, drawn with one loaded, sweeping brushstroke that both outlines and shades it. Deities share the repertoire with satire of the Westernised babu, domestic scandal and street life.

Archivo; Kalighat Pat used Bengali captions cut into Battala woodblocks and Bengali letterpress text of Battala chapbooks and almanacs

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Persian Popular Narrative, with a counter-accent from Kalighat Pat. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting)

#efe6d0 ground · 36%
#1d1a16 ink · 14%
#c99a2e accent · 18%
#b3302a accent · 14%
#2b4c8c accent · 10%
#2f7a4a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe6d0;
  --ink: #1d1a16;
  --accent-1: #c99a2e;
  --accent-2: #b3302a;
  --accent-3: #2b4c8c;
  --accent-4: #2f7a4a;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints: Many sheets depict Hindu deities that are still worshipped (Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Krishna), and some were painted for Muslim patrons (Duldul, Imam Husain's horse), so do not distort, crop or place these figures in mocking or disposable contexts. The patua (chitrakar) families of Bengal still practise the art; commission or credit living painters rather than tracing museum images, and name the artist where known.

Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting): Many of these images depict Imam Husayn, his family and the martyrs of Karbala, whose mourning is at the heart of Shiʿa devotion, and coffeehouse paintings of Karbala still hang in tekyehs and are shown during Muharram; some lithographs also depict the Prophet Muhammad, which many Muslims consider forbidden. The lithographers often veiled the faces of the Prophet, ʿAli and Husayn or ringed a holy face with a halo, so keep that convention and never supply a face for the Prophet, ʿAli or Husayn. Do not use these figures as decoration, parody or throwaway packaging, and have any Persian or Arabic text, including names of God, the Prophet and the Imams, read by a fluent reader. Coffeehouse paintings are the work of named painters and their pupils, so credit them, and commission Iranian painters and calligraphers rather than tracing their work.

The two styles

1830–1930 · South Asia Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints The bazaar art of nineteenth-century Calcutta: watercolours sold to pilgrims by patua painters at the Kalighat temple, and the cheap woodcuts and metal engravings that Battala presses printed for chapbooks and almanacs. A single plaque-like figure stands on unpainted paper, drawn with one loaded, sweeping brushstroke that both outlines and shades it. Deities share the repertoire with satire of the Westernised babu, domestic scandal and street life. 1843–2012 · Middle East & North Africa Persian Popular Narrative (Lithographs & Coffeehouse Painting) Iran's popular picture-stories in two media. From 1843, lithographed books printed handwritten Nastaʿlīq verse and pen drawings in one process: framed scenes in ruled text columns, hatched and dotted. Mirza Ali-Qoli Khoi, the most prolific illustrator, drew over 2,000 scenes for epics, romances and Karbala martyrologies in 1846–55. From the 20th century Hossein Qollar-Aqasi, Mohammad Modabber and pupils, heirs to storytellers' screens (pardeh) and taʿziyeh, painted epic and Karbala cycles on canvases for coffeehouses where storytellers performed, each figure named, into the 2010s.