ArtsBespoke
Photograph of Raja Ravi Varma

The Artists of the House · 21

Raja Ravi Varma

1848 to 1906 · Kilimanoor, Travancore

Painter who joined European academic technique to Indian mythology and brought such images to a wide public through affordable prints.

Photograph: Bhawani Ram, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Epic scenesHindu deitiesPortraitureIdealised womenEpic scenesHindu deitiesPortraitureIdealised womenEpic scenesHindu deitiesPortraitureIdealised womenEpic scenesHindu deitiesPortraitureIdealised women
Born
1848
Died
1906
Birthplace
Kilimanoor, Travancore
Medium
Oil painting, Watercolour, Lithography, Oleography

Raja Ravi Varma was born on 29 April 1848 in Kilimanoor in the princely state of Travancore, now part of Kerala. His father was a Sanskrit and Ayurveda scholar, and he grew up familiar with the Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, texts that later supplied the subjects of his paintings. His uncle, Raja Raja Varma, gave him his first lessons, and around 1862 he entered the Travancore royal court.

His work joined European academic realism with Indian subjects. He won first prize at the Madras Painting Exhibition in 1873 and was recognised at the Vienna Exhibition the same year. In 1894 he founded a chromolithographic press in Bombay, whose prints of gods and goddesses reached homes across India. He died in 1906.

A life, dated

AB / TIMELINE

  1. 1848

    Born in Kilimanoor in the princely state of Travancore.

  2. 1873

    Won an award at an exhibition in Vienna.

  3. 1893

    His paintings were sent to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where he received three gold medals.

  4. 1894

    Started a lithographic press at Ghatkopar in Bombay.

  5. 1899

    Moved the press to Malavli, near Lonavala.

  6. 1901

    Sold the press to the German printing technician Fritz Schleicher.

  7. 1904

    Received the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal from the British authorities.

  8. 1906

    Died in Attingal, Travancore.

Held in public collections

AB / COLLECTIONS

  • Laxmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara
  • Mysore Palace

Enquiries

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Works from the house

AB / WORKS

Prakash Bal Joshi, Cobalt currents, a gold seam, 2024: a landscape-format abstract in cobalt, ultramarine and pale blue, with diagonal sweeps of the brush and two seams of gold running from lower left to upper right.

Abstract

Cobalt currents, a gold seam

Prakash Bal Joshi. A canvas of moving blue: broad diagonal strokes in cobalt, ultramarine and pale sky-blue, scraped and dragged so the surface looks like water under wind, or silk folded o.

Chandra Morkonda, Four elephants and the green tree: a landscape-format painting of a great green tree with a gold trunk, four outlined elephants on a golden ground, a pink lotus and a second tree in pink and orange.

Landscape, nature & trees

Four elephants and the green tree

Chandra Morkonda. A great tree with rounded green crowns, each leaf veined in orange and gold, stands on a golden trunk at the left, over a ground of patterned triangles in orange and saff.

Two stylised bulls face each other on a brown ground, their bodies filled with tiny scenes of Hindu deities, with gold and orange bands on horns, necks and legs.

Devotional & narrative

Two bulls carrying the gods

Vivek Kumavat. Two stylised bulls meet face to face on a warm brown ground, set against a dark block pattern.

Prakash Bal Joshi, Crimson rain on a lit field, 2015: a tall abstract in crimson, rose and pale pink, with long vertical drips running down over a loose grid of lighter panels.

Abstract

Crimson rain on a lit field

Prakash Bal Joshi. A tall canvas worked almost entirely in one colour, from deep crimson to the palest rose, with the white ground left to show through in a few lit panels near the top.

All works Abstract Figures Devotional Landscape Ravi Varma Press stones