Provenance
Private UK collection.

One interpretation of this charming image is that it satirises religious hypocrisy, referring to a proverbial story about an ascetic who does not follow his own principles of abstention, and hence by extension Brahmin priests, who break their own commandments prohibiting meat and fish. The association was made explicit in some depictions in which the cat bears Vaishnavite markings on its forehead, which disappeared later, as here. Sometimes a lobster featured instead of a fish. (See S. Sinha, C. Panda (edd.), Kalighat Paintings, Ahmedabad 2011, pp. 68-69, nos. 37 and 38). A second interpretation is a simpler one, that the paintings are a celebration of local fauna and of the richness of the Hooghly river and the food which derived from it: Kalighat paintings also depicted lobsters and various types of fish (op. cit., pp. 70-71).

Saleroom notices

Please note that the date should read '20th Century', and not 'early 20th Century'.

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- Islamic and Indian Art
- Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art

A cat holding a fish in its mouth Kalighat, Calcutta, early 20th Century

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Oliver White