Artist · 17 prints
Raja Ravi Varma Prints
About Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian painter, born on 29 April 1848 in Kilimanoor, in the princely state of Travancore (now Kerala), and died at Attingal on 2 October 1906. He came from an aristocratic family, learned watercolour from Rama Swami Naidu, and took up oil painting under the British portrait painter Theodore Jenson. He is widely regarded as a pioneer of modern Indian art.
Ravi Varma combined European oil technique with Indian subjects, painting gods, goddesses and heroines from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Puranas as warm, human figures. Well-known works include his scenes of Shakuntala and of Damayanti Talking to a Swan, as well as Gypsies of South India (1893). He won an award in Vienna in 1873 and three gold medals at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1894 he opened a lithographic press in Bombay that printed cheap colour prints of his paintings, so his images reached homes across India. Raja Ravi Varma's vision of the Hindu gods is still the way many people picture them.
Raja Ravi Varma prints: reproductions of the oil paintings Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma made between 1874 and 1906. The collection includes Damayanti and the Hamsa (1899), Draupadi Vastraharan (1888), Ravana Carrying Off Sita and Opposed by Jatayu (1906), The Gypsies of South India (1893) and There Comes Papa (1893).
This selection has two main strands. The first is scenes from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and Sanskrit literature, with heroines such as Shakuntala, Damayanti, Draupadi, Sita and Radha. The second is portraits and everyday scenes of women from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, such as Malayali Lady, A Tamil Lady Playing the Swarbat and Sisters, painted in rich silks and jewellery.
The warm reds, golds and deep greens suit living rooms, dining rooms and entrance halls, and the single-figure portraits work well in bedrooms and studies. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
