Maharashtrian woman holding a fruit plate 1800s Ravi Varma Painting with Frame

Ravi Varma was the first Indian to use Western techniques of perspective and composition and to adapt them to Indian subjects, styles, and themes. He won the Governor’s Gold Medal in 1873 for the painting Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair. He became a much-sought-after artist among both the Indian nobility and the Europeans in India, who commissioned him to paint their portraits.

Though his portraits brought him fame, Varma increasingly painted subjects in Indian mythology. His representations of Hindu gods and goddesses and characters in the epics and the Puranas reflected his absorption in Indian culture. His paintings, including Harischandra in Distress, Jatayu Vadha, and Shri Rama Vanquishing the Sea, captured dramatic moments from Indian mythology. His depictions of Indian women drew such appreciation that a beautiful woman would often be described as looking “as if she had stepped out of a Varma canvas.”

Varma adapted Western realism to pioneer a new movement in Indian Art. In 1894 he set up a lithographic press in order to mass-produce copies of his paintings as oleographs, enabling ordinary people to afford them. That innovation resulted in the tremendous popularity of his images, which became an integral part of popular Indian culture thereafter.