Aye! Raja

A collection of Raja Ravi Varma's original prints are up for display in the capital

The favourite painter of the erstwhile princely state of Travancore is here in the capital. Original prints of Raja Ravi Varma, one of the first modernist painters of India, who is also known as the 'father of calendar art industry' in India, are set to be showcased in an art gallery.



The collection of more than 260 original prints belong to Kerala-based art collector Charu Ram and is being showcased for the first time. The aim of the exhibition is to ideally set up a museum with Varma's prints. And not so subtly, to sell it off to a discerning client. "I am so fond of the collection that I didn't want to display for it so long. But now I am growing old and want to sell it off," she says.

Charu has been collecting the prints for over 20 years. She sourced them from different places in south India. So she had to go to old shops, check out newspaper advertisements and keep a tab on dealers and collectors. "I was always on the lookout and wanted to collect as many subjects as possible," says the collector.

Go easy on the gods
Some subjects, she admits, were tough to locate like Priyadarshika while others like prints of Laxmi, Saraswati, Shiva and Parvati were more commonplace.

Charu is "fascinated" by Varma's paintings and collects books on him and often goes to museums etc to find out differences between prints and originals to satiate her curiosity levels. The prints on display are also known as oleograophs ufffd prints created using oil-based colours.

Getting back to history
A self-taught artist, Ravi Verma learnt his craft by watching British portrait painters. A progressive thinker, he is credited with visualisings the anthropomorphic forms of the plethora of Indian gods and
goddesses. His prints portray mythological stories and also from classical literature.

At: Apparao Art Gallery, Garden Theatre, Triveni Kala Sangam, 205, Tansen Marg
When: December 2 to 15
Timings: 11 am to 7 pm
Ring: 9910064347