Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) - A Prince Among

Painters and A Painter Among Princes

 Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) was born in Kilimanoor

Palace as the son of Umamba Thampuratti and Ezhumavil
Neelakandan Bhattathiripad.

 At the age of seven years he started drawing on the palace

walls using charcoal.

 His uncle Raja Raja Varma noticed the talent of the child and
gave preliminary lessons on painting.

 At the age of 14, Ayilyam Thirunal Maharaja took him to

Travancore Palace and he was taught water painting by the
palace painter Rama Swamy Naidu.
  After 3 years Theodor Jenson, a British painter taught him oil
painting.

 Most of his oil paintings are based on Hindu epic stories and
characters.

 In 1873 he won the First Prize at the Madras Painting

Exhibition.
 He became a world famous Indian painter after winning in
1873 Vienna Exhibition.

 Many of his oil paintings are classic and his unique Indian
style has later influenced artists and designers worldwide.

Important works

 . Village Belle
 Lady Lost in Thought
 Damayanti Talking to a Swan
 The Orchestra
 Arjuna and Subhadra
 The heartbroken
 Swarbat Player
 Shakuntala
 Lord Krishna as Ambassador
 Jatayu, a bird devotee of Lord Rama is mauled
byRavana
 Victory of Indrajit
 The gypsies[attribution needed]
 A Lady Playing Swarbat
 Lady Giving Alms at the Temple
 Lord Rama Conquers Varuna
 Gheevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala
 Nair Woman
 Romancing Couple
 Draupadi Dreading to Meet Kichaka
 Shantanu and Matsyagandha
 Shakuntala Composing a Love Letter to
KingDushyanta
 Girl in Sage Kanwa's Hermitage (Rishi-Kanya)
 Bharani Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi of Travancore
 Sri Shanmukha Subramania Swami
 Woman holding a fan
 3D painting of The Mysore king in a
horse[available at the Mysore palace]
The Maharashtrian Lady
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas)
Hamsa Damayanthi
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1899)
Sakunthala
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1898)
Goddess Saraswathi
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1896)
Jatayu Vadham
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1895)
Goddess Lakshmi
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1896)
Goddess Durga
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas)
Hamsa Damayanthi
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1899)
There Comes Papa
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1893)
Arjuna and Subhadra
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas - 1890)
Galaxy of Musicians
(Raja Ravi Varma - Oil Painting on Canvas)
 Lithographic printing was a printing process with
different stone plates for different colours.

 The Greek word lithos means 'stone' and graphein

means 'to write' so Lithography can be defined as
'stone printing'.
 The printing plate originally used were porous stones.

 The priting portion of the stone plate was treated to

absorb ink and the nonprinting area was treated to
repel ink.

 Ravi Varma started press in Ghatkopar, Mumbai in

1894 and later shifted to Malavli near Lonavala,
Maharashtra in 1899.

 In 1901 the press was sold to his printing technician

from Germany, Mr. Schleizer and was destroyed in
fire and closed down later.

 The pictures were mostly of Hindu Gods and

Goddesses also many were based on Mahabharatha
and Ramayana.

 Drawings were not so good and their prints were not

of good quality but were coming out in thousands
even for many years after expiry of Ravi Varma in
1906.
  The pictures carried the press names The Ravi
Varma Press Ghatkoper,

 The Ravi Varma Press Malavli, The Ravi Varma Fine

Art Lithographic Press Bombay (F.A.L. Press),

Bharat Milap
(Lithographic Print from Ravi Varma Press)
Riddhi Siddhi Ganapathi
(Lithographic Print from Ravi Varma Press)
 Vanavasi Ram
(Lithographic Print from Ravi Varma Press)
Sreerama Durbar
(Lithographic Print from Ravi Varma Press)
 Oleograph

 Oleography was a technique used for large

scale quality color printing.

 It is litho printing (printing with stone) but with

more color palettes, using large number of
stones.
 Use of oil gave the prints more quality (oleo in
latin means oil).

 Modern oleography popular in those times was

based on methods invented by George Boxter, a
British printing expert in 1835.

 Later at the end of 19th century, with new

methods of color printing started in western
countries, this method became less popular in
Europe but started becoming popular in India.

 To print copies in large numbers Ravi Varma

started press in Ghatkopar, Mumbai in 1894
from where first oleograph 'Birth of Sakunthala'
was produced.
 The press was shifted to Malavli near Lonavala,
Maharashtra in 1899 from where thousands of
 Oleographs, Lithographs and Lithoprints were
produced.

 Later the press was sold to his printing

technician from Germany, Mr. Schleizer, in
1901. The press was destroyed in fire and
closed down after some years.

 Since Oleography was in infant stage in India,

many of the prints came out of Ravi Varma
Press were not of impressive quality compared
to his oil paintings.

 Many art critics criticized his paintings evaluating

only the oleographs, not original oil paintings.

 Oleograph, alsocalled chromolithograph or chromo 
, colour lithograph produced by preparing a separate
stone by hand for each colour to be used and printing
one colour in register over another.
 The term is most often used in reference to
commercial prints. Sometimes as many as 30 stones
were used for a single print.

 The technique was pioneered in the 1830s but came

into wide commercial use only in the 1860s.

 It was the most popular method of colour reproduction

until the end of the 19th century, when more efficient
techniques rendered it obsolete
Goddess Saraswathi
(Oleographic Print from Ravi Varma Press)
Goddess Lakshmi
(Oleographic Print from Ravi Varma Press)
Sakunthala and Sakhis
(Oleographic Print from Ravi Varma Press)

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