- RECENT POSTS
- RARE BOOKS
- PAINTINGS
-
- THEMES
- The Grand Mughals - Babur to Bahadur Shah Zafar (1526-1857)
- Indian Life and Landscapes by Western Artists
- Literature, Music and Dance of Ancient India
- Collecting Rare and Antiquarian Books
- Museums, Libraries and Archives of the World
- Hinduism - the Sanathana Dharma
- India - After the advent of Photography
- Indian Cities - Through the Ages
- Art, Sculpture and Treasures of India
- Architecture of India
- India - Its People, Culture, Professions and Languages
- India and its Royalty
- Ancient India (Upto 1200 CE)
- The Honourable East India Company (1600-1858)
- India - As seen by foreign travellers
- The Dutch, French and Portuguese in India
- The Indian Independence Movement
- Dealers of Rare and Antiquarian Books
- History of Mysore
- India during the Colonial Era
- Company School Paintings
- Sikhs - Their Religion and History
- Buddhism - in the land of Buddha
- Kingdoms of India
- Islam in India
- Christianity in India
- Rise of the Maratha Power
- Hinduism in foreign lands
- Cartography of India
- Modern Literature in India
- Natural History of India
- India and its Many Geographies
- The Deccan Kingdoms
- Revisiting Indian History
- History of India's Trade, Industry and Finance
- Saints, Reformers and Pioneers
- Astronomy, Ayurveda, Yoga, Science and Mathematics in Ancient India
- Hindu Empires of Southern India
- Colonial Literature of India
- Art and Artists of the Twentieth Century
- Rare Dictionaries of Indian Languages
- The History of India - By its various Historians
- Travel Literature of Colonial India
- The Foreign Invaders
- Jainism and its ancient origins
- RBSI in Media
- Rare Books of World Literature
- Sanskrit - its grammar and antiquity
- Neighbouring lands of India
- The Parsis - Who made India their home
- Military History of India
- THEMES
- JOIN RBSI
RAJA RAVI VARMA (April 29, 1848 - October 2, 1906) was an Indian painter from the princely state of Travancore who achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. His paintings are considered to be among the best examples of the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art.
Raja Ravi Varma received widespread acclaim after he won an award for an exhibition of his paintings at Vienna in 1873.[2] He travelled throughout India in search of subjects. He often modeled Hindu Goddesses on South Indian women, whom he considered beautiful. Ravi Varma is particularly noted for his paintings depicting episodes from the story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and Nala and Damayanti, from the Mahabharata. Ravi Varma's representation of mythological characters has become a part of the Indian imagination of the epics. He is often criticized for being too showy and sentimental in his style. However his work remains very popular in India.
- Wiki
Ravi Varma's Mythological Oleographs :
http://www.barodaart.com/oleographs-mythological.html
An excellent collection of Ravi Varma's Mythological Oleographs : http://www.barodaart.com/oleographs-mythological.html
His paintings are stunning. :))
I just don't understand the viewpoint of art crtics. What do they mean by showy and sentimental? Kerala among Indian States is known for its simplicity beginning from Prices and Kings to the common man.. whatever may be the current staus..I mean after all that Gulf money flowing in.. definitely in the Raj days and the first half of the period since our independence one can vouch Kerala has been the epitome of simplicity...elite to laiety...
In Raja Ravi Varma's paintings we see the expression of the feelings very well portrayed... I am particularly impressed about the Harishchandra's offering himself for sale at Kashi... The state helplessness and at the same time the regal dignity are portrayed so naturally..one look at it brought tears into my eyes...Art that engages and transfers the feeling is really really live...
Not too sure what exactly you mean by Kerala being the epitome of simplicity ..elite to laiety ..?
mahadeva....please dont make generalisation about simplicity of kerala culture...if it was so simple..there would not have been communism..in kerala
I think MSS meant simple in attire and less ostentatious...which is true.
Thanks Subbiah, for explaining... you got my point which I thought peopele would have also noticed...
Gr8 Raja
As a Malayalee who has spent long periods in Kerala over my own lifetime..I 'd say such generalizations tend to be quite a minefield. I personally would be very chary about making any such statements about Kerala and the Malayalees. Though long ago a fellow Malayalee once quite cynically said ..its a lovely land with lousy people. Much as I'd hate to say so .. I 've found this is the one statement very few Malayalees would differ with !
Personally I'd venture that the real nub of the issue is the fact that Travancore and Cochin had very Enlightened Rulers . Among their signal achieivements were mass literacy and permitting the 'lesser castes' to enter the temples . Mind you this was long before these became ' fashionable ' , if you will... Now , whether or not one can ascribe such Enlightenment and 'avant gardism ' of their rulers to ..the 'simplicity' of the people and their broad ethos ..well ,I for one , really couldn't say !
The Baroda Royal Family has a splendid and large collection of Raja ravi Verma paintings