SUNDAY SURPRISE (27)

RAJA RAVI VERMA : FATHER OF MODERN INDIAN ART.

( Image and Information : Wikipedia)

Raja Ravi Verma was a great Indian painter and an artist whose works have me completely mesmerized. He’s one of my favorite artists. He was born on 29 April 1848, at Kilimanoor, Travancore. His art was the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. He made affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public which enhanced his popularity.

Raja Ravi Verma found a patron in Ayilyam Thirunal, the next Maharaja of Travancore. He completed his basic training in painting in Madurai. He learned water painting from Rama Swami Naidu and got trained in oil painting reluctantly by the Dutch portraitist Theodore Jenson.

He and his brother were taken under the wings of The British administrator,  Edgar Thurston, who promoted their artistic career. Raja Ravi Verma received an award for an exhibition of his paintings at Vienna in 1873 and also won three gold medals at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. He used to depict the Hindu Goddesses as Indian women because he considered them beautiful. He also depicted Indian Mythology through his paintings. Some of his sketches include episodes from Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and Nala and Damayanti, and from the Mahabharata.( Stories). Most of his paintings are stored at Laxmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara.

The great artist passed away on 2 October 1906 (aged 58) at Attingal, Travancore ( Now Kerala) . He made India proud with his outstanding art.

His paintings :

Lord Krishna and His Mother Yashoda.

King Dushyant and Shakuntala.

Birth of Shakuntala.

Mata Mahalakshmi: The Hindu Goddess of Wealth and prosperity.

Mata Saraswati : The Goddess of Learning and Art.

A mother and child.

A beautiful woman.

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