A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s8.t1.4

c15.s8.t1.4

The most prominent representative of the Europeanized school of Indian artists was the late Rāja Ravi-varma of Travancore, a connexion of the Mahārāja of that State. His works, which are extremely numerous, achieved wide popularity, and have been freely vulgarized by oleographs and other cheap modes of reproduction. The Rāja practised both portrait and landscape painting, and four of the portraits in the Banqueting Hall, Madras, are from his brush.⁴ He was assisted by his relative, Rāja Rāja-varma, and other members of his family. He had received instruction from Theodore Jensen and other European artists who visited Southern India, as well as from Alagri Naidu, a native of Madura, in the Madras Presidency, who was patronized by Swāti Tirumal, Mahārāja of Travancore from 1829 to 1847, and was considered in his day to be the best painter in India after the European fashion. Ravi-varma had a formidable rival in Ramaswamy Naidu, a member of the clan of Nāiks at Madura, who was considered to excel in portrait painting.