Raja Ravi Varma, a renowned Malayali painter is the marvelous player of colors.
He painted n numbers of canvas with his artistic vision. Shakuntala– Looks of Love, is one of his internationally famous painting.
The painting “Looks of Love” depicts a scene from Indian Mythology Mahabharata in which Shakuntala mother of emperor Bharata, who established Bharata dynasty, is pretending to remove a thorn from her feet. But she was actually looking for her husband Dushyanta, while her friends lead.
Shakuntala- Looks of Love
The incident is a scene framed in the background with flowers and green plants while the sun sets in its beautifully bright yellow shade.
The white canvas was brought to life with this painting in the year 1870. The medium of painting is oil on canvas. Raja Ravi Varma went through the rigmarole of painting the scenery only to get one of the most recognised artworks of his career.
He painted it in Kilimanoor and now it is exhibited at Sri Chitra Art Gallery in Trivandrum, Kerala. The “Looks of Love” seems as if it is a still captured from a movie or a film. It seems hard to digest that it an artwork of color and not a computerized printed poster.
Raja Ravi Varma not only comes among the greatest painter in the history of Indian Art for his artwork but also for his contribution to socializing the art.
Some of the famous paintings undersigned by him are Shakuntala, Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair, There comes the Papa, Galaxy of Musicians, and many more. The list of painting suggests that he more often depicted Hindu Goddesses or Indian women whom he considered beautiful.
He contributed to socialising the art among common people by making affordable lithographs of his paintings. So that acknowledging his paintings does not limit only to the elite people of society but also to the common public of India.
This step of Raja Ravi led to an increased involvement of the common public in the field of fine arts and defined artistic. At that time, Ravi Varma press was the largest and most innovative press in India. Despite winning many accolades and fame in the field of art and painting, people criticized him for being too showy.
