Rukmini Varma Paintings

Rukmini Varma, born Bharani Tirunal Rukmini Bayi, Princess of Travancore, comes from an illustrious tradition of art. Her great great grandfather, Raja Ravi Varma, is considered the Father of Modern Art in India. 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, 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. 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, and 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 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 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 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 in major collections across the world. (ArtSlant) 

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Nala Damayanthi Early 1980s

The Rape of Rambha
Early 1980s

Mother and Child from the Flesh & Gems Series
Late 1970s

Mohini and Bhamasura