1848–1906 · Kilimanoor, Travancore (now Kerala)
Raja Ravi Varma
A painter from Kilimanoor in Travancore who put Indian epics into European oils. His press in Bombay turned those pictures into cheap prints, and for many families the gods still look the way he painted them.
Ravi Varma was born in Kilimanoor in 1848 and was patronised by Ayilyam Thirunal, Maharaja of Travancore. He learned the basics in Madurai, watercolour from Rama Swami Naidu, and oil from Theodore Jenson, a British portraitist.
His subjects were Shakuntala, Damayanti, Krishna as a child, and the women of Kerala at their mirrors. Recognition came early: he won a prize in Vienna in 1873 and three gold medals at the Chicago exposition of 1893.
In 1894 he opened a lithographic press at Ghatkopar in Bombay, and moved it to Malavli in 1899. Cheap oleographs of his pictures reached homes that would never see a painting. The press was sold in 1901 to Fritz Schleicher, its German printer, and the prints carried on without him.
Much of the original work stayed with the courts that paid for it. The best single room is the gallery in Thiruvananthapuram that grew out of the Sree Chitra collection. Vadodara’s Laxmi Vilas Palace and Mysuru’s Jaganmohan Palace hold more. When you meet a framed Ravi Varma in a family home, the odds favour a print from his press. That is not a disappointment. It is how most of India first met him.
Notable works
- Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair1873
- Damayanti Talking to a SwanRaja Ravi Varma Art Gallery (Sree Chitra), Thiruvananthapuram
- There Comes Papa1893
- Yashoda and Krishna1890sPrivate collection
