raja ravi varma: the legendary painter of kerala

Raja Ravi Varma & his works

Born April 29,1848
Kilimanoor, Travancore, Company Raj
Died October 2,1906
Kilimanoor, Travancore, British India
Occupation Painter
Raja Ravi Varma

Great Artists
Raja Ravi Varma was born to Umamba Thampuratti and Neelakandan Bhattathiripad in the royal palace of Kilimanoor on April 29, 1848. Ravi Varma belonged to a family of scholars, poets and artists.

Noted in his family were, among others, Vidwan Koil Tampuran, author of the famous Kathakali work Ravana Vijayam, Raja Raja Varma, who painted after the Tanjore style, and Uma Amba Bai Tampuratty, who, composed Parvati Swayamvaram, a work for the Tullal dance. The inborn talent of the painter started showing at a very tender age. As only a small boy, he filled the walls of his home with pictures of animals, acts and scenes from his daily life, which though irked the domestics, were noted by his uncle, Raja Raja Varma as the signs of a blossoming genius.



The uncle, himself a Tanjore artist, not only gave the first drawing lessons to Ravi Varma, but also took a keen interest in his further training and education with the help of the ruling king, Ayilyam Thirunal.

Recognizing the innate aptitude of their child, when he was only 14 years old, his parents sent him to study under the patronage of Ayilyam Thirunal Maharaja of Travancore, where he stayed at the Moodath Madam house of the Kilimanoor Palace and was taught water painting by the palace painter Rama Swamy Naidu. Here Varma's talent was nurtured by the personal interest of Ayilyam Thirunal who exposed him to the famous paintings of Italian painters. He received tutelage, first, from the palace painter Rama Swamy Naidu and then, from Theodor Jenson, a British painter.


Ravi Varma had been using the indigenous paints made from leaves, flowers, tree bark and soil which his uncle Raja Raja Varma prepared for him. His first set of oil paints was brought from Madras after noticing a newspaper advertisement. Excited and nervous, he handled the paints he had waited for a long time.

Varma's next dilemma was learning to paint. This dilemma may seem incongruous more than a century after he started to paint, but the medium was very new and the technique equally elusive in those days. Only one person in Travancore knew the technique of oil painting - Ramaswamy Naicker of Madura, who, recognizing a potential rival in Varma, refused to teach him the know-how. Naicker's student, Arumugham Pillai would actually sneak into Moodath Madam at nightfall to share his knowledge with Varma, against his teacher's wishes.



This clandestine education was only supplemented by watching a visiting Dutch portrait artist who painted the portraits of Ayilyam Thirunal and his wife. Through trial, error and hard work, Ravi Varma worked with the pliable medium, learning to blend, smooth and maneuver the flexibility that was afforded by this slow drying substance.



When Varma himself painted the portraits of this royal couple, this self-taught artist's blazing talent far outshone the Dutchman! Ravi Varma's creativity was further tampered by listening to the music of veterans, watching Kathakali, going through the manuscripts preserved in ancient families and listening to the artistic interpretations of the epics. Ravi Varma's fame as a portrait artist soared with several important portrait commissions from the Indian aristocracy and British officials between 1870 and 1878, and the sensitivity and immense competence this artist still remains unsurpassed.
His clever portrayal would add elegance to the personality of the protagonist, like unmasking the fragrance of a flower. The small town of Kilimanoor was compelled to open a post office, as letters with requests for paintings arrived from every where. The recognition that Ravi Varma received in major exhibitions abroad was for the portrait-based renditions, which were meticulous compositions of people, their demeanor and attires.



These works finely blended the elements of the early Tanjore custom of painting Nayikas (the feminine emotions being the central theme) and the graceful realism of European masters. In 1873 he won the First Prize at the Madras Painting Exhibition and he became a world famous Indian painter after winning in 1873 Vienna Exhibition. Though not really qualified for the title of a Raja, when an imperial citation happened to come across in the name of Raja Ravi Varma, the name stuck and stayed.

Besides portraits, and portrait-based compositions, Varma now embarked on honing an oeuvre for theatrical compositions based on Indian myths and legends. " Nala Damayanti", " Shantanu and Matsyagandha" , " Shantanu and Ganga", "Radha and Madhava", " Kamsa Maya", "Shrikrishna and Devaki", " Arjuna and Subhadra", " Draupadi Vastraharan" , " Harischandra and Taramati", "Vishwamitra and Menaka", " Seetaswayamvaram" , " Young Bharat and a Lion Cub", " The Birth of Sri Krishna", ' Keechaka and Sairanthri' took new forms under his skillful brush.

With oil paints applied thickly, Ravi Varma created lustrous, impasted jewellery, brocaded textures, and subtle shades of complexions. Though several folk and traditional art forms of India since time immemorial subsisted as illustrations for religious narratives, yet, illusionist paintings as a medium for story telling was Ravi Varma's invention. He cleverly picked the particularly touching stories and moments from the Sanskrit classics. Though often considered as lacking in overall congruity, by the sheer mastery of painting beautiful areas and expressions, his compositions would enchant the beholder no end.



Ammakovil Thampuran

Ravi Varma was convinced that mass reproduction of Raja ravi varma paintings would initiate millions of Indians to real Art, and in 1894 he set up an oleography press called the Ravi Varma Pictures Depot. For photo-litho transfers, the Pictures Depot relied on Phalke's Engraving & Printing whose proprietor, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, became famous as dadasaheb of Indian Cinema a few years later.

In 1894 and 1888, Ravi Varma and his younger brother C.Raja Raja Varma took a tour around India, in search of images and landscapes for inspiration. On his return from the second tour, Ravi Varma painted a batch of pictures especially for reproduction at his new press, the Picture Depot. The aristocratic orientalism in his imagery was now replaced by a little more folkish, more iconic and more marketable forms, and also seen was a crises of gender identity of contemporaneous European forms.



Lady In Her Dressing Room

The Calendar-Art thus brought-forth by Ravi Varma has been the origin of lakhs of gaudy god-pictures by ultramodern litho presses for decades. Raja Ravi Varma died of diabetes on October 2, 1906, in his Kilimanoor Palace home overflowing with friends, relatives, dignitaries and the media. Yet, the rich heritage of the fragrance of his paintings continues to charm and influence the art of India.



Lady With the Lamp Masterpiece Oil Painting By Raja Ravi Varma



Kerala Lady - Painted by Raja Ravi Varma



Raja Ravi Varma's Painting of a North Indian Village Girl Carrying Milk



Ravi Varma :Half naked Beauty




Raja Ravi Varma passed away on 2nd October 1906. Tributes Dr. Abanindranath Tagore, connoisseur of Indian art, most aptly encompasses the personality of RaviVarma in a single sentence. It is rare to come across in these days, men like him, artists like him, lovers of India like him.

An artist who is credited with bringing about a momentous turn in the art of India, Raja RaviVarma inexorably influenced future generations of artists from different streams. He was the first artist to cast the Indian Gods and mythological characters in natural earthy surroundings using a European realism; a depiction adopted not only by the Indian "calendar-art" - spawning ubiquitous images of Gods and Goddesses, but also by literature and later by the Indian film industry- affecting their dress and form even today. His dazzling oil paintings of India's ancient glory delighted turn-of-the- century India and his mass reproductions through oleography reached out to the Indian populace in an unprecedented scale.

Raja Ravi Varma got married to Rani Bhageerathi Bayi (Kochu Panki Amma) of Mavelikara Royal House. He spent the later years of his life in Mysore, Baroda and a number of other cities in the country. This exposure helped him in broadening his outlook. At the same time, he was able to expand as well as sharpen his skills and evolve into a mature painter.

Professional Aspects

Raja Ravi Varma received systematic training, first in the traditional art of Thanjavoor and then, in the European art. He is credited with providing the critical link between Thanjavoor School and Western academic realism. His paintings can be classified into the following three categories:

* Portraits
* Portrait-based Compositions
* Theatrical Compositions, based on myths and legends

It is the third category of paintings for which Raja Ravi Varma is the most renowned. He was continuously traveling through the length and breadth of India, in order to find subjects for his paintings. His love for the South Indian women is depicted through his works. In many of his paintings, he has modeled Hindu Goddesses on the women living in the southern parts of India. The most popular as well as impressive paintings of Raja Ravi Verma include the ones depicting episodes from the story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala and that of Nala and Damayanti.

At times, Raja Ravi Varma is criticized for being too showy in his paintings. His paintings are also condemned for overshadowing traditional Indian art forms, especially the ones depicting Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Raja Ravi Varma's approach is said to lack the dynamism of expression seen in the traditional paintings. Critics have also disapproved of his rejecting the traditional models of representation of deities and reducing them to the level of mortals.

Recognition

In recognition of the immense contribution of Raja Ravi Varma towards Indian art, the Government of Kerala has instituted an award in his name. Known as the 'Raja Ravi Varma Puraskaram', the award is given to individuals who show considerable promise in the field of art and culture. There is a college in Mavelikara district of Kerala, established in the honor of Raja Ravi Verma. He also received international recognition in 1873, when he won the first prize for his paintings at the Vienna Art Exhibition.

He is known for his amazing paintings, which revolve mainly around the great epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana. Raja Ravi Varma is one of the few painters who have managed to accomplish a beautiful unison of the Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art. He left for the holy abode on 2nd October 1906, leaving behind his legacy of amazing paintings. Raja Ravi Verma's paintings of beautiful sari clad women have also received recognition in the west.

Notable Works of Raja Ravi Varma
Given below is a comprehensive list of the prominent works of Raja Ravi Varma:* A Family of Beggars
* A Lady Playing Swarbat
* Arjuna and Subhadra
* Damayanti Talking to a Swan
* Draupadi Dreading to Meet Kichaka
* Girl in Sage Kanwa's Hermitage (Rishi-Kanya)
* Jatayu (a bird devotee of Lord Rama is mauled by Rawana)
* Lady Giving Alms at the Temple
* Lady Lost in Thought
* Lady with Fruit
* Lord Krishna as Ambassador
* Lord Rama Conquers Varuna
* Nair Woman
* Romancing Couple
* Shakuntala
* Shakuntala Composing a Love Letter to King Dushyanta
* Shantanu and Matsyagandha
* Swarbat Player
* The Heartbroken
* The Orchestra
* Victory of Indraji