Raja Ravi Varma's art is timeless and unforgettable. Images of his work remain etched in one's memory forever.

RAJA RAVI VARMA

A specially sized lithograph, probably used for an advertisement as was the norm in those times. Ravi Varma depicts Mohini as an enchantress or temptress based on an original oil painting of the same title. This chromolithograph, possibly because of its use for 
advertisement has been painted on a different variety of paper and in different sizes.

Rights: Sandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation

A specially sized lithograph, probably used for an advertisement as was the norm in those times. Ravi Varma depicts Mohini as an enchantress or temptress based on an original oil painting of the same title. This chromolithograph, possibly because of its use for 
advertisement has been painted on a different variety of paper and in different sizes.

Unique in its size and the quality of paper, this large chromolithograph was acquired by gallery g from an old Kerala family in Manna, who was demolishing their flood-hit home in the year 2018. The paper, owing to its unique nature, has acidified with age. 

Rights: Sandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation

Chromolithograph

Mohini

Signed: Ravi Varma Coil Tampuran, Travancore, circa 1893.  

One of the most stunning works created by Ravi Varma, the portrait of a ravishing young lady holding a gooseberry or lemon in her hand was possibly the artist’s way of indicating her pregnant state. Her features, ethereally beautiful like many other women painted by Varma, set a high standard of beauty. The artist has decked her out in an array of traditional South Indian jewels and has painstakingly detailed her garments. Details such as the type of jewellery worn by her, the possibly regional weave of her saree and her rich velvet embroidered blouse clearly indicate that the women belonged to a higher strata of society of the time. Her well-made up face hints at the fact that she was no stranger to the ritual of dressing up attractively.  
Painted in a medallion style, much like French artists of the 17th Century did, this work with its distinctively French title ‘The Coquette’ is one of Varma’s most striking paintings.

2D Digital Painting

Digital

A painting of a women holding a fruit in her hand

People

Portrait

Signed: Ravi Varma, 1902.  
The Nair woman gazes calmly at the viewer and relaxes with a book, while a maid cools her down with a palm leaf fan. Believed to have been modelled on the heroine of the popular Malayalam novel Indulekha by O.C. Menon, the painting alludes to Édouard Manet’s masterpiece ‘Olympia’ (1863). Nevertheless, it is apparent that a stylistic and a cultural adaptation have occurred in Ravi Varma’s painting. While he appreciated the imagery in Olympia, he altered the source of inspiration to suit his and other local sentiments.  
In this painting, the central character, a young educated Nair woman in 19th century Kerala, can be seen wearing a mundum neryathum (a two-set upper and lower garment that eventually evolved into a saree), kasu malai (garland of coins), ruby-studded gold bangles, earrings and necklaces. Her hair is in an elaborate up do as was commonly worn by Nair women. A strand of jasmine flowers and pink roses adorns her elaborate bun. 

A painting of a Nair Woman reading a book as she reclines on a couch.

RAJA RAVI VARMA

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