Painter

Deepanjana Pal

Description

On April 29, 1848, in a small estate in Travancore, was born a boy destined to become more famous than the ruler of his kingdom. His uncle, noticing his precocious talent at art, took the teenager to the royal court at the invitation of the king to learn painting there. Ravi Varma's debut was to come seven years later when a Danish painter arrived in court to paint the Maharaja and his wife. The twenty-year-old boldly upstaged the experienced artist, presenting the king with a more flattering painting of the royal couple at the same time as the official portrait was unveiled. Jensen, the painter, never forgave Ravi Varma, but for the young man there was no looking back. His reputation grew with each painting. For the first time, an Indian artist was using the realism and sensuality of the European oil painters and applying them to not just ordinary Indians, but to the deities as well. The artist-prince became India's first celebrity painter. The lines to see his exhibition of mythological paintings in Bombay in 1890-the first public showing by any Indian artist-were endless; the prices he commanded were astronomical; then, when he started his own printing press, producing oleographs of his work, Raja Ravi Varma became a household name. Soon, every home had a Ravi Varma print. For the first time, comes a beautifully told, gripping account of Ravi Varma: the man who was the darling of the royal courts, but who hardly gave his own wife and children any time; the nobleman who took the revolutionary step of being an artist, yet who insisted on using the false title of raja; and the idealistic entrepreneur who bankrupted himself running a printing press, yet whose dream of bringing art to the masses became a reality. Blending fact with imagination, writing with wit and lyricism, Deepanjana Pal takes you into the life of an extraordinary man and brings him vividly alive.

Informations

• Publié par: Random House Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.
• Date de parution: 02 décembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184002614
• Langue: English

Extrait

The

A Life of Ravi Varma
The

A Life of Ravi Varma
Deepanjana Pal

RANDOM HOUSE INDIA
Published by Random House India in 2011
Copyright Deepanjana Pal 2009
Random House Publishers India Private Limited
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A-1, Sector-125, Noida-201301, U.P.
Random House Group Limited
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London SW1V 2SA
United Kingdom
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EPUB ISBN 9788184002614
To
Sajan Venniyoor, because he asked for it first, and
Anjalee Kohli, for pounding the pavements with me.
Contents
Author s Note
Principal Characters
Key Dates
Part One: A Boy in Travancore
Part Two: The Painter Prince
Part Three: Bharat Darshan
Part Four: The Ravi Varma Fine Art Press
List of Ravi Varma s Major Works
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Author s Note
Culture is for the living, and art should be about taking part, wrote the playwright Lee Hall in the introduction to his play The Pitmen Painters. When researching for this book, I found myself going through books, diaries, notes, articles, catalogues, and a lot of dust. Most of it yielded valuable facts and information, but every page and the often archaic turn of phrase reminded me that this was history. It was not about the living; it was about analysing one who had lived long ago and swaddling the person in hindsight. In contrast, when I listened to people telling me the stories they knew about Ravi Varma, the man came to life.
While writing this book, I wanted my reader to feel that same sense of immediacy that I had felt when hearing about Ravi Varma and the people he knew. I wanted to tell Ravi Varma s story in a way that felt alive, was accurate, and drew the reader into his world whether or not they were interested in the beginnings of modern Indian art. So I decided to not be boxed in by documented evidence. I included, in the narrative, vignettes and gossip that cannot be verified. I let in the emotions that facts suggested but did not always announce. In this entirely non-fiction tale, I have used fiction and imagination in parts, to recreate a bygone world; and I have been careful to keep that which has been recorded distinct from that which was imagined. In the text you will find the latter in italics. At no point have I deviated from the history of Ravi Varma. As my aunt, author Nabaneeta Dev Sen once told me, Fiction doesn t necessarily mean fictitious.
June 2009,
Mumbai
Principal Characters
The book uses the full names of all characters in the first instance of occurrence, and then refers to them using the shortened, informal forms. Ravi Varma Coil Thampuran Ravi Varma and Raja Ravi Varma Uma Ambabai Thampuratty Amba (Ravi Varma s mother) Ezhumavil Neelankantan Bhattiripad (Ravi Varma s father) Raja Raja Varma Raja Varma (Ravi Varma s uncle) C. Raja Raja Varma Raja (Ravi Varma s brother) Maharaja Ayilyam Thirunal Ayilyam (Maharaja of Travancore) Pooruruttati Nal Thampuratty Bhagirathi (Ravi Varma s wife) Sir Thanjavur Madhava Rao Madhava Rao (Dewan of Travancore and later Baroda) Vishakham Thirunal Vishakham (Ayilyam s successor) Kerala Varma Valiya Coil Thampuran Kerala (Ravi Varma s friend and brother-in-law) Maharaja Sayaji Rao III Sayaji (Gaekwad of Baroda) Raja Deen Dayal Deen Dayal (friend of Ravi Varma and acclaimed photographer) Fritz Schleicher Schleicher (Manager, and later owner, of the Ravi Varma Fine Arts Lithographic Press) Anjanabai Malpekar Anjanabai (Ravi Varma s model)
Key Dates 1848 Ravi Varma born on 29 April in Kilimanoor 1860 Raja Raja Varma born on 3 March in Kilimanoor Ayilyam Thirunal becomes Maharaja of Travancore 1862 Ravi Varma moves to Thiruvananthapuram Ayilyam Thirunal marries his second wife, Nagercoil Ammachi. 1866 Mangalabai born at Kilimanoor Ravi Varma and Bhagirathi are married. 1868 Theodore Jensen visits Thiruvananthapuram. He and Ravi Varma both paint a portrait of Ayilyam Thirunal and Nagercoil Ammachi. 1870 Ravi Varma decides to become a professional artist. 1872 Kerala Varma arrested. Ravi Varma expelled from Ayilyam Thirunal s court. 1873 Ravi Varma is invited back to Thiruvananthapuram by Ayilyam Thirunal. He wins gold medal at Madras Fine Arts Exhibition. 1874 Ravi Varma again wins gold medal at Madras. 1875 Kerala Varma, son of Bhagirathi and Ravi Varma, is born in Mavelikkara. 1876 Ravi Varma wins gold medal at Madras for the third time. 1880 Rama Varma, son of Bhagirathi and Ravi Varma, is born in Mavelikkara. Death of Ayilyam Thirunal. Vishakham Thirunal ascends the throne of Travancore. 1881 Ravi Varma invited to Baroda. Maharaja Sayajirao III offers Ravi Varma the first Baroda commission. 1884 Death of Ravi Varma s uncle, Raja Raja Varma. 1885 Ravi and Raja Varma are invited to Mysore for a commission. Death of Vishakham Thirunal. Srimoolam Thirunal ascends the throne of Travancore. 1886 Death of Ravi Varma s mother, Uma Ambabai Thampuratty. 1887 Ravi and Raja Varma invited to Mysore for a commission. 1888 Sayajirao III offers Ravi Varma the second Baroda commission for Rs. 50, 000. Ravi and Raja Varma complete a tour of India. 1890 Paintings from the Baroda commission exhibited in Thiruvananthapuram. 1891 Death of Bhagirathi. Paintings from the Baroda commission exhibited in Bombay. 1892 Paintings from the Baroda commission shown in Baroda. 1893 Ravi Varma participated in the World s Columbian Commission International Exhibition in Chicago. He received two certificates of merit. 1894 The Ravi Varma Fine Arts Lithographic Press starts production. Ravi and Raja Varma take Prince Aswati Thirunal on a tour of central and northern India. 1900 Ravi Varma meets Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India. Ravi Varma s granddaughters are adopted into the royal family of Travancore. 1901 Ravi and Raja Varma go to Udaipur for a commission. Ravi and Raja Varma go to Hyderabad for a commission. Ravi Varma diagnosed with diabetes. 1903 The Ravi Varma Press is sold to Fritz Schleicher. 1904 Raja Varma wins gold medal at Madras Fine Arts Exhibition. Ravi Varma is awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind. Ravi and Raja Varma go to Mysore for a commission. 1905 Death of Raja Varma on 4 January in Madras. Raja Varma wins gold medal at Madras Fine Arts Exhibition posthumously. Ravi Varma completes paintings for the Maharaja of Mysore in Kilimanoor, assisted by Rama Varma. 1906 Ravi Varma invited to be part of the entourage accompanying King George V on his visit to Mysore. Death of Ravi Varma on 20 September in Kilimanoor.

Part One
A Boy in Travancore
C owdiar Palace is in the heart of modern-day Thiruvananthapuram (or Trivandrum, as it is known in its Anglicized version), with a noisy market behind it and a Caf Coffee Day five minutes walking distance away. While the Maharaja of Travancore lives in the more secluded Pattom Palace, Cowdiar Palace is home to the Maharanis of Travancore. It stands atop a slight bump of a hill, surrounded by perfectly manicured lawns. The six Ravi Varma paintings that the royal house of Travancore has managed to hold on to as personal property are kept in this palace.
The painting titled At the Bath is one of the six, and it is in the salon on the ground floor that visitors are brought to. The life-size oil painting, now a little yellowed with age, hangs above a love seat and faces the large windows. The girl in the painting stands shy yet seductive, holding her white sari close and drawing the eye to the gleaming skin of her shoulders and the tumbling softness of her long black hair. Near the bottom of the painting, you can see her delicate foot slipping out from under her sari. It s as though she is thinking of stepping out of the heavy golden frame and into this old room. If you follow her eyes, she seems to be looking upstairs with sweet nervousness, as though she doesn t want this moment between you and her to be discovered or interrupted by those who could come down the staircase and enter the room at any moment.
Maharaja Studios is a few minutes away from Pattom Palace by car. It s like a hundred other shops in Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala, where you can get a photograph taken, or buy a picture or print of anything, from a heavy-lidded Jesus with a glowing heart to a suspiciously obese, pink baby Krishna painted in the Tanjore style. If you ask for a print of the painting At the Bath , a glossy photograph of an oil painting will be placed upon a counter. It is a painting of a woman standing at a bath, clutching her unravelled sari to her chest. She looks straight at you, mischief and temptation in her eyes, and she holds the wet folds of white fabric so as to artfully show off her breasts. If you ask the salesman whom this painting is by, he ll tell you that it is by Raja Ravi Varma.
* * *
Ravi Varma was born on April 29, 1848, in a small estate called Kilimanoor, a few hours away from Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the kingdom of Travancore. He was the first of the three sons and one daughter born to the ruling family of Kilimanoor. We should call him Ravi Varma Coil Thampuran because that was his official name, the one that acknowledged the aristocratic lineage of his mother, Uma Ambabai Thampuratty. In Malayali, Thampuratty means princess, and it was her blood that made him a prince, or Thampuran, because the southern kingdom followed the matrilineal system of inheritance, according to which property was inherited through the mother s line. So daughters inherited from mothers, and this raised the position of women in society. How