Kalighat paintings orignated in Bengal, around the famous Kalighat temple, by the bazaar artists who adopted this style. Initially the use to paint images of deities for the visiting devotees, the painters being keen observers of the life around him gradually started painting other social subjects an also satirical subjects like the westernize BABU and his mistress trying hard to mimic the Europeans. The golden age of Kalighat art spans from the mid 19th century up to the 1920's.