Varma, as a kid, used to draw on the walls of his house; and noticing his talent, his uncle sent him to Thiruvannathapuram to learn painting under His Highness Ayilyam Tirunal. The latter exposed him to western master paintings which influenced Varma’s works throughout his life. The painter rose to fame in 1872 after winning a painting prize in Vienna.
Varma’s compositions and style of working are very much similar to European historical and Biblical narrative paintings. Apart from imitating the heavy draperies of western figures and the Greek columns in his portraitures, Varma was the first to depict Hindu gods and goddesses as regular human beings, as opposed to some fantastical imagery. He was also the first to take classical Indian literature as a serious source for his art, and frequently depicted narratives from epics such as the Mahabharat and Ramayan.
What made these paintings of Varma’s accessible to all was their mass production through the printing press that he himself set up. The Ravi Varma Pictures Depot in Mumbai printed oleographs of his paintings. It was the distribution of these cheap color prints that initiated the popular consumption of classical and religious images in India in the late 19th century. Thanks to Varma, abundant colorful posters of Hindu deities can be found in the market today.
Nonetheless, due to the high European influences in Varma’s paintings, contemporary critics disqualified his works as Indian art. He was also criticized for the extravagant nature of his paintings which overshadowed the traditional forms of Indian art.
Some of Varma’s most famous paintings include “Lady Giving Alms at the Temple,” “Romancing Couple,” and “Shakuntala.”
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