On the occasion of Raja Ravi Varma’s 168th birth anniversary, a talk by Rupika Chawla, describing the life and works of Raja Ravi Varma, was organised at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Chawla is a conservator of paintings. She spent seven years researching and travelling across the country collecting information about the phenomenal artist. Based on her research, she authored a book “Raja Ravi Varma: Painter of Colonial India”, which includes vivid details about his life.
There was also an exhibition by Art Alive Gallery which included works of contemporary artists who have been inspired by Varma’s oleographs, which brought a contemporary twist to his narratives.
In her talk, Chawla gave the audience an insight into Varma’s rich art and legacy by elucidating on his ventures in which he visited the various princely states that commissioned him to paint. She talked about his paintings and the story behind them by aptly describing the context in which they were painted. One such work which had Raja Ravi Varma’s daughter and his grandson, alongside a dog, was sent by him to Chicago for the Great Columbian exhibition. However, it didn’t get sold there and is now placed in the Courtyard Palace in Trivandrum.
“In India, the royals were the first to own dogs as pets. They took this fashion from the British,” she said. She also laid emphasis on the two mythological paintings by Varma that gained the most popularity –– the Laxmi and Saraswati paintings, versions of which can be seen even today.
On being asked what she admired the most about Varma, Chawla replied, “I have never seen anyone with the energy, vision and spirit that he had. He travelled the length and breadth of the country during a time when there was no proper mode of transportation. At a certain point of time, after travelling a lot, he bought land in Madurai. He died two months after that and even during the last phase of his life, he didn’t stop working.”
“What fascinated me the most during my hunt for archives were the handwritten letters and newspapers that I retrieved from that time. I was amused to read the numerous obituaries that were written for him and at every point, I had to remember to pick on details like dates and names, without which, I could not have pieced together the stories that I did,” stated Rupika.
