# Vaishnava Devotee with Two Women

- Date: c. 1890
- Medium: Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Painting only: 45.4 x 27.8 cm (17 7/8 x 10 15/16 in.)
- Culture: Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
- Credit line: Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.101)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/2003.101/2003.101_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Here a devotee of Vishnu is wearing shoes and is depicted with some irony as being a fashionable devotee, or perhaps merely posing as orthodox. Kalighat artists often targeted hypocritical Vaishnava mendicants whose intentions with unsuspecting women were far from innocent. On his forehead one finds sectarian marks worn by worshippers of Vishnu. The man’s right hand and one of the women’s left hands, both held aloft, are colored red, possibly to indicate that they were adorned with henna.