Sitala was painted by Unknown in 1885.

Where can I see Sitala?

Sitala is held by Victoria and Albert Museum.

What movement is Sitala?

Sitala is associated with Impressionism.

Artwork

Sitala

Unknown , 1885

Sitala is a paint painting by the Impressionist artist Unknown. It dates from 1885 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

About this work

Overview

Sitala, the deity linked to smallpox, is portrayed in an opaque watercolor on paper dated 1885. The work, whose creator remains unidentified, entered the collection in 1894 through Miss M Steele, whose family connections to India and scholarship in Sanskrit suggest an early provenance.

Subject & Meaning

The figure is a four‑armed woman astride a brown donkey, dressed in a red‑white costume and a vivid yellow headdress radiating a sun‑like aura. Each hand grasps a distinct object, emphasizing the goddess’s multifaceted powers and her role in overseeing health and disease.

Technique & Style

Executed in opaque watercolor, the painting employs bold outlines and saturated hues that delineate the figure against a plain light‑green background. The flat application of color and the clear, graphic rendering are characteristic of late‑19th‑century Indian devotional art.

History & Provenance

The artwork was likely acquired in India by the grandmother of Miss M Steele, a woman who spent part of her life there. It passed to Steele’s mother, a Sanskrit scholar at Cambridge, before being sold to the present institution in 1894.

Context

Sitala’s iconography reflects traditional Indian representations of disease deities, where multiple arms denote divine capability. The inclusion of a donkey, a common transport animal, grounds the divine figure in everyday life, aligning with devotional practices of the period.