Lithographs from Ravi Varma and allied Presses

Pandavsabha Ravi Varma Press Malavli - Lonavala Medium: Lithographs Size: 14 n x 10 n Ravi Varma is unquestionably credited with popularizing Hindu deities, episodes from the epics and Puranas & introducing calendar art in India. The success of Ravi Varma was due to the modern interpretation of Hindu mythology. Lithography came in the later part of his career. The turning point in his life was in the year 1881 when at the invitation of Maharaja of Baroda, he carried out his first series of mythological paintings. He believed that this genre of art was the opportunity given to him for contributing to the cultural development of India. A suggestion was made by T. Madhava Rao, his mentor, to send his to Europe to be oleo-graphed. In the meanwhile, fourteen of his paintings were publicly exhibited in the year 1891, after the permission granted by the Maharaja of Vadodara – first in Trivandrum and Mumbai. It was the first public exhibition of his mythological paintings and the exhibitions were tremendously successful. However, Ravi Varma wanted to keep his paintings open for public viewing rather than confine it for viewing by the privileged class. Thus, in 1892, he began to plan the opening of a publishing house of his own. Mumbai was chosen as the optimal location, both due to the presence of the port – all machinery of big dimensions came from Germany – and the availability of local labour that could be put under the direction of the European masters of art who were made to come from Berlin. The Ravi Varma Press was thus born in 1892 and other allied presses followed under the league of Ravi Varma.