Raja Ravi Varma: Portrait of an Artist

With permission from authors Erwin Neumayer and Christine Schelberger and approvals from Oxford University Press, which first published the book in 2000, the Foundation presents new information, facts and images of paintings which were not earlier available. Considering the research for this book was conducted in the 1990s, at a time when documentation was not easy to access, the Foundation has also verified the earlier published information and made minor factual corrections.

Historian Partha Mitter has written in his foreword: "The diary maintained by Raja Raja Varma is one of the most valuable sources for first-hand information on Ravi Varma’s life as a professional artist and enables us to corroborate many of the events in his life and his achievements, hitherto known mainly through myths and hearsay."

Excerpts from the diary:
Sunday 18th October 1903
We arrived at Madras this morning and stay with my nephew Rama Varma at Royapettah. This evening we drove to the Central Station to see about our luggage, next visited Mr Baliah Naidu’s.
Monday 19th October 1903
At the desire of our friend Mr Baliah Naidu we removed our residence to his bungalow at Poonamally Road. He has made excellent arrangements for our comfort. In the morning we visited…..

Ananda Gajapati was the second of three children born to Maharajah Vijayarama Gajapati Raju. This watercolour enhanced photograph was taken by Raja Deen Dayal (1844-1905), well known to Ravi Varma, and a celebrated photographer of the times.

In 1893, Ravi Varma decided to send a consignment of ten pictures titled ‘The Life of Native Peoples’ to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The theme for the ten paintings were women dressed in the in their traditional attire. The 'Lady Singer of Bombay or Bombay Singer' was one the ten works.

"Ravi Varma’s paintings were awarded with two gold medals. But a close look at the wording of the diploma reveal the finer connotations of the prize. Ravi Varma’s paintings were not exhibited in the general section for art, but in the section for ethnography. Admired not so much as extraordinary paintings, but rather as ethnographic specimens ‘…of much ethnological value...’, they give careful attention to the detail of costume and articles used in social and ceremonial life." 

The Varma brothers were acquainted with Mr. John Griffiths and first made his acquaintance on 5th January 1895 when they met him at the school with H.H Prince Martanda Varma. Griffiths showed them his most famous painting 'Temple Steps' which was unfavourably reviewed by Rajaraja Varma who said it was "poor in colour, poor in execution and poor in design".

Dr. Bhaskara Varma had the original diary of C. Rajaraja Varma transcribed by his associate S. Srinivasan Potti. There are records of only two parts of these 'copies of the diary'. Both the known parts have been handed over to the Foundation and remain in its archives. The authors Erwin Neumayer and Christine Schelberger have physically seen the original diary in its tattered and 'crumbling' form which, unfortunately could not be restored to its original form.