THREAD on Rukmini Varma's Painting
In a time when India was still a land of splendid Maharajahs and fabulous courts, Rukmini Varma was born in 1940 into one of its most ancient royal houses, with an unbroken dynastic lineage of over 1200 years.
1/11
🎨The Rape of Rambha,1980s
In a time when India was still a land of splendid Maharajahs and fabulous courts, Rukmini Varma was born in 1940 into one of its most ancient royal houses, with an unbroken dynastic lineage of over 1200 years.
1/11
🎨The Rape of Rambha,1980s
Titled Her Highness Bharani Tirunal Rukmini Bayi Tampuran, Fourth Princess of Travancore, Her great great grandfather, Raja Ravi Varma, is considered the Father of Modern Art in India.
🎨 Woman with fan
2/11
🎨 Woman with fan
2/11
Her grandmother, the last Maharani of Travancore, was a patron of many artists, while her father trained under court painters in the 1940s. Rukmini never studied art formally but developed her own style of realist painting through the 1960s
3/11
🎨Nala Damayanthi Early 1980s
3/11
🎨Nala Damayanthi Early 1980s
inspired by Rembrandt, Caravaggio and the grand masters of the European tradition. In 1970 she held her first exhibition, sponsored by a private collector, in Bangalore, which was a great success.
4/11
🎨Mother and Child from the Flesh & Gems Series.
4/11
🎨Mother and Child from the Flesh & Gems Series.
In 1973 her second solo show was opened in Bangalore by the Governor of the State of Karnataka,where 34 of 39 paintings exhibited were sold within days. In 1974 her third solo show was opened at the Lalit Kala Academy in Delhi by the President of India
5/11
🎨Mohini and Bhamasura
5/11
🎨Mohini and Bhamasura
in 1975 she had her first international exhibition in Germany, followed by her fifth show in London at India House, opened by Lord Mountbatten. In 1981 and 1982 she held her final exhibitions at the Taj and Jehangir Galleries in Bombay, where
6/11
🎨Mohini by Rukmini Varma
6/11
🎨Mohini by Rukmini Varma
Newspapers described a 'stampede' to view her paintings. In the early 1980s Rukmini became famous for painting nudes in mythological Indian settings. Throughout that decade she painted a number of nudes through her
7/11
🎨The Emperor’s Proposition, 2016
7/11
🎨The Emperor’s Proposition, 2016
Pratiksha Series, all of which were purchased by collectors abroad, and never exhibited owing to fears of a backlash from the orthodoxy. Since her son's death in 1988, Rukmini has been living as a recluse, painting for a select group of private
8/11
🎨Lady with the Lamp, 2016
8/11
🎨Lady with the Lamp, 2016
collectors, with no subsequent public exhibitions. She paints grand canvases, with sumptous colours and grand settings, with women being a central theme and subject in her works. Despite her self-imposed exile from art circles, Rukmini's paintings today hang
9/11
🎨Untitled,1976.
9/11
🎨Untitled,1976.
in major collections across the world.
10/11
🎨Vishvamitra Menaka
10/11
🎨Vishvamitra Menaka
Rukmini is also Chairperson of the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation.
11/11
🎨Mohasakshi from the Pratiksha Series
© tumblr
11/11
🎨Mohasakshi from the Pratiksha Series
© tumblr
Loading suggestions...