A pregnant cow

Observation of domestic, cultural, and political everyday life often serves as subject matter for Mithila artists. Shanti Devi is among the most educated and most continually innovative artists among the lower-caste Dusadh community (once called “untouchable”). Here she transforms the simple rural subject of a pregnant cow into an image of nature’s bounty and fertility by adding blooming flowers, sprouting buds, and bees around the animal.

In this painting, Shanti Devi makes use of a style that was traditionally employed only by members of her caste. It is distinctive both for its linear bands filled in with dots and for its paper that is coated with an auspicious cow dung wash that recalls a mud wall. Shanti Devi is one of a few artists who consistently use organic pigments rather than industrially produced colors, or “bazaar paints.”