Delightful and inspiring

While surfing the art circuit recently, the snippet that caught my attention was from Sotheby’s that stated Raja Ravi Varma’s picture, ‘A Himalayan Beauty’, went to a private European buyer for $2,66,500 on September 16, 2011. I immediately remembered him being featured in the 1998 Limca Book of Records when his painting, ‘The Begum’s Bath, was sold for Rs 32 lakh at an auction of contemporary Indian art at the Nehru Centre, Mumbai, in 1997. It was recorded as the highest price ever paid for an Indian painting. Of course, Indian paintings have sold for much more since then. But one always remembers the pioneer. He was the first Indian artist who fused the techniques of Western and Indian art successfully, painting scenes from Indian myths and legends in the realistic style of the West, which eventually formed the basis of a popular art tradition later.

I first came across Ravi Varma’s paintings at the Maharaja Fatesingh Museum in Baroda. The art collection is displayed in a school building within the palace compound where Maharaja Fatesinghrao Gaekwad and other members of the royal family had their schooling. The art collection once belonged to Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, said to be the maker of Baroda city. It was he who invited Raja Ravi Varma, the first Indian artist to use oil colours, to paint portraits of the royal family. Many of his famous paintings on mythological subjects were also done at Baroda and now comprise a part of the Ravi Varma collection. They include masterpieces like Vishwamitra and Menaka, King Shantanu and Matsyagandha, Arjuna and Subhadra, Nala and Damayanti, Radha waiting for Krishna at the Kunjavana, and several others. The royal portraits include studies of  Maharaja Sayajirao III, Sampatrao Gaekwad, Maharani Chimanabai II, Princess Tarabai and others. I was particularly interested in locating the portrait of the beautiful princess Indira Raje, his only daughter, who was the mother of Maharani Gayatri Devi. There are 80 paintings by Ravi Varma in this collection. Later in life he also patronised the royal houses of Travancore, Mysore and Udaipur, where his paintings are exhibited.

What strikes the layman first of all is Ravi Varma’s use of bright colours in his portraits and landscapes. There is an exquisite blend of the early Tanjore style of painting and the graceful realism of European masters. His forte was the use of bright colours in his portraits and landscapes. What also stands out is his apt selection of significant moments from the Sanskrit classics. He is said to have provided an important link between traditional Indian art and the contemporary; between the Tanjore School and Western Realism. Although his technique was European, the soul was undoubtedly Indian. He has been described as “a representative of Europeanised School of Indian Artists”.

Ravi Varma’s development as an artist is interesting. The son of Umamba Thampuratti and Neelakandan Bhattathiripad, he was born in a royal Travancore family at Kilimanoor. He showed great promise from a very young age, making charcoal drawings on the walls and floors of his house. His uncle, artist Raja Raja Varma, recognised his talent and gave him his first lessons. Ravi Varma  was lucky enough to get the patronage of Ayilyam Thirunal, Maharaja of Travancore, when he was just 14 years old and had his first lessons from the palace painter, Rama Swamy Naidu. This is where he discovered and learned new techniques in the field of painting. Another important artist who trained him in oil painting three years later and greatly influenced his style was his British teacher Theodor Jenson.

Varma’s later years spent in Mysore, Baroda and other places enabled him to sharpen and expand his skills, finally blossoming into a mature and complete artist. Connoisseurs feel that it was largely because of his systematic training, first in the traditional art of Thanjavoor, and later, European art.

Ravi Varma made his debut in the fine arts exhibition at Chennai (then Madras), in 1873. His work, ‘Nair Lady at her Toilette’, won him the governor’s gold medal. This picture also fetched him the gold medal at the painting exhibition held in Vienna that year. After his return from Madras, he painted ‘Heights and Depths’ showing a Tamil woman from the royal family flinging a silver coin at a beggar woman. ‘The Gypsies of South India’, featuring a wandering fortune teller with a baby on her lap, also belongs to the same period. Some of his works were exhibited at the World Religious Conference of 1892 at Chicago.

Varma’s paintings have been broadly classified as portraits, portrait-based compositions and theatrical compositions based on classical myths and legends. His most outstanding paintings include 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 and Seetaswayamvaram, among others. By 1876, he had painted several versions of Shakuntala and one particular painting sent for the Madras competition impressed the Duke of Buckingham so much that it was selected as the frontispiece for Sir Monier William’s translation of Abhijnana Shakuntalam. All his chosen subjects took new forms under his skillful brush. He was also convinced that mass reproduction of his paintings would initiate millions of Indians to real art. So, in 1894, he set up an oleography press called the Ravi Varma Pictures Depot.

Other museums housing paintings by Ravi Varma include the Jayachamarajendra Museum and Art Gallery in Mysore, the Sri Chitra Art Gallery in Trivandrum and the National Art Gallery in Chennai where fiber optic lighting is used to illuminate the important paintings to protect them from heat and radiation.