Raja Ravi Varma was a celebrated Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography
Additionally, he was notable for making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public, which greatly enhanced his reach and influence as a painter and public figure. His lithographs increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes among common people. Furthermore, his religious depictions of Hindu deities and works from Indian epic poetry and Puranas have received profound acclaim.

Raja Ravi Varma was closely related to the royal family of Travancore. Raja Ravi Varma was born M. R. Ry. Ravi Varma, Koil Thampuran of Kilimanoor at Kilimanoor palace in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore, into an aristocratic family. The title Raja was conferred as a personal title by the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. At an early age, Varma showed a keen interest in drawing, and would draw on the walls of Kilimanoor palace, where he lived. His uncle, Raja Raja Varma, noticed the younger Varma’s talent, and gave the latter initial lessons in painting. At the age of 14, Varma went on to receive training in watercolours from Ramaswamy Naidu, the royal painter. Later, Varma studied oil painting with the British painter Theodore Jensen. Apart from Travancore, Varma also worked for other wealthy patrons such as the Gaekwad of Baroda.

Varma worked on both portrait and landscape paintings, and is considered among the first Indian artists to use oil paints. Apart from painting Hindu mythological figures, Varma also made portraits of many Indians as well as Europeans. Varma is also known for having mastered the reproduction of his work on the lithographic press– through which his paintings spread far and wide. He continues to be regarded as the most important representative of the Europeanised school of painting in India. His 1873 painting, Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair, won Varma prestigious awards including Governor’s Gold Medal when it was presented in the Madras Presidency, and Certificate of Merit at an exhibition in Vienna.

In 1904, the British colonial government awarded Varma with the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal. In 2013, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in his honour.
A prolific artist, Varma is believed to have made around 7,000 paintings before his death at the age of 58. His most famous works include Damayanti Talking to a Swan, Shakuntala Looking for Dushyanta, Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair, and Shantanu and Matsyagandha.