Social recognition of an artist in the sphere of public acceptance- this is what the word “modern” here stands for. This kind of establishment by an artist comes as a result of his individualism, his own style and his signature.
And Indian art came to a new pavilion of focus with Raja Ravi Varma. In the end of nineteenth century this artist emerged out and started qualifying himself for this very distinction. And still now his works have survived the market of demand. This clearly shows his awareness of market strategies even in the time when there was actually nothing called market for Indian artists. Indian artists were rather thought to be very provincial, cause of their confinement in their themes and techniques in their art work.
Raja Ravi varma (1848-1906), a blue blood, started learning the basics of traditional Tanjore painting from his uncle, Raja Raja Varma. The education he received in his early childhood was mainly through the Indian classics. Later he equipped himself with the British schooling. He was an artist with extreme talent and he was the only the-then artist to get so much of appreciation not only from the Indian connoisseurs but also from the foreign. This is also true that his royal blood opened him to a broad stream of studies in Indian painting, which was very much responsible for his achievement in his later life. His acquaintance with the Maharaja of Travancore brought him opportunities to educate himself in the area of western skills and concept. He read books on the European renaissance and got attracted to the medium of oil painting. This was the time when oil painting had the patronage of the British rulers and was gaining popularity among the native kings. He was aware that the western paintings were popular because of their closeness to what they perceive. He was conscious of the advantage of realism in western art. Portraits and realistic compositions were in great demand that time. Even the court artist of Travancore, Ramaswamy Naicker commanded respect because of his proficiency in oil portraiture. Ravi varma did his first commissioned portrait in 1870, but it didn’t have the finesse which his later works had. He earned his full recognition in the area of portraiture when he painted the madras governor, duke of Buckingham. What earned him a quick popularity was his quick ability to catch the likeness in the portrait with the human sitting for him in very short time.
His works can be prominently divided into two categories – one would be the paintings of the common themes and portraits of the royal families and another would be the mythological thematic paintings
Examples of the first category is -
1. Portrait of a maharshtrian lady
2. The veena player
3. Pannalal Mehta
4. Englishman
5. Lady with fruit
6. At the ball game, Etcetera
And of the later is –
1. Nala and Damayanti
2. Harish Chandra and Taramati
3. Arjun and Subhadra
4. Young Bharata and the lion cub
5. Sakuntala sitting
6. Sakuntala standing
7. Sita bhuparavesam
8. Saraswati
9. Ravana fighting with Jatayu
and etcetra
The next phase of his career took a lift with the Indian classics. His interpretation of the epics was different from what we saw in the pre-Ravi Varma period, they were fuller of western touches. It can be said that his paintings were translations of the Indian Sanskrit classics in the European language of style and grace. But yes, his images had no iconic representation. His power of narrating the whole story in his composition was enough for making one understand the theme. No wonder that when Monier Williams published his book, ‘abhijnana Sakuntalam’ his painting, ‘shakuntala writing love letter’ became the cover page. His realisation that the Indian myths and legends needed a new interpretation played the key role of his success in establishing his own signatory style in Indian art. He followed the pre-Raphaelite concept and traditions of English art and thus, he was ahead of his time in the Indian scenario of art. He continued with his thematic paintings on the epics till the end of his life. In his secular paintings too he came up with the representation of his knowledge and liking for the Victorian style of living. The way he dressed up his female figures in long full length sarees and draped them carefully was never seen in previous Indian art. Though he was a south Indian, he was also in love with the other cultures in India. His Maharashtrian lady like appearance of Damayanti in his masterpiece, ‘hamsa- damayanti’ stands as an example in this context. His patrons too drove him to work on the epics, like what the raja of Baroda palace and Mysore palace did.
He extended his work of art to print making creating a genre which was for the first time accessible to the masses. The “saraswati” is a great example. His oleographs translated the iconographic representation of the mythical gods and goddesses to the portraits of many royal families. His dramatic depiction of mythological characters and incidents stood out at the most and influenced the later Indian cinema and calendar art. This trend of being inspired by literary works other than ‘Puranic’ themes was later taken up by the Bengal school even though they firmly kept on rejecting the realisms of Raja Ravi Varma.
