Raja Ravi Varma: A Celebrated Artist & Human

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Raja Ravi Varma is considered one of the greatest painters India has ever seen. He knew how to blend European art and Indian iconography and sensibility.

Let’s know more about the man:-

1. Raja Ravi Varma was born on 29 April 1848 into an aristocratic family of Travancore in Kerala. He was hailed by the British as the finest artist in India, and maharajas sought his paintings.

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2. Even ordinary people hung prints of his paintings in their homes. Some of his depictions of Hindu deities are popular even today.

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3. Raja Ravi Varma was said to have started a new style of painting in India. He was among the first artists in India to paint in a naturalistic style with careful attention to finer aspects.

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4. He was very delicate with details depicting them with great skill. These were parts like pearl necklaces, satin and silk fabrics, gold brocade borders, lap dogs, marble pillars etc.

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5. The pioneers of Indian cinema, like Dadasaheb Phalke and Baburao Painter, were influenced by him. Their heroines resembled the heroines of Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings.

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6. He was a self-made artist. Contemplative by nature, young Verma spent his days watching the effects of light and shadow. He drew on walls and sketched incessantly.

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7. Basics of painting were grasped by Raja Ravi Varma in Madurai. And later, he was trained under Rama Swami Naidu in water painting and by Dutch portraitist Theodor Jenson in oil painting

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8. Raja Ravi Varma was also known for initiating a lithographic printing press in Ghatkopar, Mumbai (1894), later shifted to Malavali near Lonavala, Maharashtra (1899).