RAJA RAVI VARMA - ART AND CULTURE
News:
Raja Ravi Varma’s 175th birth anniversary: Celebrating the artist’s subtle,
layered nationalism
What's in the news?
● Raja
Ravi Varma, the artist from Kilimanoor, a quaint town around 30 kilometers from
Trivandrum, dreamt of travelling the world but was constricted due to the
religious sanctions that frowned upon it. He explored every opportunity to
showcase his art to as many and as distant an audience.
Raja Ravi Varma:
● Raja
Ravi Varma was born into an aristocratic family in Kerala. Raja Ravi Varma was largely a self-taught artist as European techniques go.
● He
was a master at handling the oil medium
and achieved magical ease with European naturalism.
● Raja
Ravi Varma, also known as 'The Father of
Modern Indian Art' was an Indian painter of the 18th century who attained
fame and recognition for portraying scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata
and Ramayana.
Uniqueness of his paintings:
● He
stood at the transitional stage between
Indian painting tradition and the emergence of the Salon artist well versed in
European academic naturalism; he reconciled the aesthetic principles of
both in his style.
● He
represented the Hindu mythological
stories so loved by the Indian imagination, with an illusionistic flair
that mirrored the society of his time.
● Raja
Ravi Varma excelled as a portrait
painter as well as a painter of various other genres like history painting,
painting of female figures and so on.
● According
to art historians, Raja Ravi Varma’s dramatic history paintings influenced the
pioneers of Indian cinema like Dadasaheb Phalke and Baburao Painter.
Famous works:
● Damayanti
Talking to a Swan, Shakuntala Looking for Dushyanta, Nair Lady Adorning Her
Hair, and Shantanu and Matsyagandha.
Awards and Honours:
● His
1873 painting, Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair, won Varma prestigious awards
including the Governor's Gold Medal
when it was presented in the Madras Presidency.
● He
won the first prize in the Vienna Art
Exhibition in 1873 and four movies have been documented based on Ravi
Varma's life tenure.
● He
was also awarded three gold medals at
the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
● In
1904, the British colonial government awarded Varma with the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal.
● In
2013, a crater on the planet Mercury
was named in his honour.
● According
to the Guinness World Records, the most expensive saree named 'Vivaah
Patu' in the world is an 8-kg sari priced at Rs
40 lakh and pays tribute to his paintings.