Raja Ravi Varma Paintings

About Raja Ravi Varma

Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian painter, and his works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. He greatly enhanced his reach and influence, as a painter and as a public figure, by making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public. Those prints increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes. His religious depictions of Hindu deities, and his works drawn from Indian epic poetry and the Puranas, have received critical acclaim. He was part of the royal family of Parappanad, in the Malappuram district, so the Raja in the name is not a flourish of art. Raja Ravi Varma is the rare painter who was both a royal and a household image.

The life ran from 1848 to 1906, so all of the work belongs to the 19th century. He bridged traditional Indian art and the Western technique he had mastered, and the pictures blend Hindu mythology, portraiture and scenes from India's history. The oleograph process he pioneered let those images be produced in quantity and sent out cheaply across India, which is how the work of a royal painter ended up in ordinary homes and became an integral part of India's culture.

Series and periods

Our own listing sorts his output into four strands, and only the first of them exists here as an oil you can order.

• Mythological subjects: his depictions of Hindu deities and of the legends of Indian epic poetry and the Puranas, given the realism and the grandeur of the academic manner, and the part of the work that received critical acclaim. Titles here: Shakuntala.
• Portraits: the human form portrayed with precision and attention to detail, the strand that sits closest to the European training he had mastered. None of those sitters has a page here yet, so the portrait group below is where that thread continues.
• Historical scenes: moments from India's history set down in paint, the third of the three things the pictures blend with mythology and portraiture. They are the least reproduced part of the work, and none of them has reached this page yet.
• Oleographs and prints: the oleograph printing process he pioneered, which allowed his images to be produced in quantity for a wide audience and made affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public. The prints are why the name travelled so far, and they are the one strand a studio cannot paint: we paint the oil and never the print.

Most famous works

One Raja Ravi Varma title is for sale in the collection, and it is the only one of his artworks we paint in oil. You can see it online below: it opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame, and it is painted new for the order.

• Shakuntala: the single Ravi Varma title here, a woman from the epic poetry and the Puranas his subjects come from, set down in the academic manner he learned from Europe and dressed in Indian cloth. It is the only page under his name on the site, so it is where this list begins and ends, and it comes in the same seven sizes as everything else we paint

Browse by subject

Ravi Varma's subjects run through other collections of ours, and each one is a wider door into the same Indian art and the same culture.

• Mythology paintings: 3,360 works, The deities and the epic stories, the part of Ravi Varma's work that received critical acclaim, alongside the myth painting of every other country we cover. It is the group to browse if the subject matters more to you than the signature.
• Religious paintings: 3,084 canvases, the visual representation of religious ideas and their relationship with humans, with sacred art the part of it made for worship and religious practice. His religious depictions of Hindu deities belong here, next to the devotional painting of the rest of the world, and the two groups overlap more than their labels suggest.
• Cultural heritage and religion: 4,433 titles, The wider heritage group, where the devotional and myth painting of India meets the same subjects from every other tradition we cover.
• Portrait paintings: 8,463 pieces, the genre whose intent is to represent a specific human subject, worked on commission for public and private persons or out of admiration for the sitter, and long kept as a state and family record. Portraiture is one of the three things the pictures blend, with mythology and history, and the faces are where the European training shows.
• Portraits of women: 9,375 paintings, The one title here sits with these, the women who carry a whole picture on their own, from every century we paint.
• The 100 most famous paintings of all time: 100 works, No Raja Ravi Varma title is on this list, which is a fact about the list rather than about the painter, but it is the fastest tour of what we do reproduce in oil, from the Renaissance to the 19th century.
• The 50 most popular paintings: 50 canvases, The shortest list we keep, the titles ordered most often, worth a look if you arrived for one famous picture and want to see what else is painted here by hand.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. The image is built up layer by layer in oil, so what arrives is a painting and not an oleograph or any other kind of print. The size you pick is the size a studio artist will set on the stretcher, and the picture goes into your home only after you have seen a photograph of it and said yes to what you see. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there only one Raja Ravi Varma painting here?

Because the collection holds one title under his name, Shakuntala, and that is the only Ravi Varma painting we have for sale rather than a page padded to look bigger. The mythology, religion and portrait groups linked above hold thousands of titles between them, and they are the nearest thing to more of his work in oil. Any further title tagged to his name shows up on this page automatically.

Who was Raja Ravi Varma?

An Indian painter, part of the royal family of Parappanad in the Malappuram district, who lived from 1848 to 1906. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography, and his reach came as much from the affordable lithographs as from the canvases themselves.

Do you sell Ravi Varma prints or oleographs?

No. He made affordable lithographs of his own paintings to reach the public, and the oleograph process produced them in quantity, but prints are not what we sell. If you want paper you want an oleograph, and that is not something a studio makes: each item here is a new painting in oil, made by hand for your order.

Why does Raja Ravi Varma matter in Indian art?

Two reasons, and the second is the unusual one. His religious depictions of Hindu deities and his works from Indian epic poetry and the Puranas have received critical acclaim, and the cheap prints he had made increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes, because the images were finally cheap enough for an ordinary house to own.

Was he really royal?

Yes. Raja Ravi Varma was part of the royal family of Parappanad, in the Malappuram district, and that is where the Raja in the name comes from. It is the reason his name is written that way everywhere, in our own catalogue included.

Are these original Raja Ravi Varma paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after Ravi Varma's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every Ravi Varma reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.