Mapping Asia – Final Object Label & Catalogue Entry

 

 

 

Object Label

Ravi Varma -Shakuntala

Shakuntala looks back at Dushyanta

Oil on canvas

1898

Sri Chitra Art Gallery, Trivandrum

 

This painting portrays the scene where the lovers -Shakuntala and Dushyanta, parts after their first meeting. Ravi Varma constructed a romantic and desirable feminine image of Shakuntala in the woods as she is seen looking back at her lover, Dushyanta while pretending to remove a thorn from her feet. She appeared to be caught between her companions and her lover Dushyanta as her arm was on one of her companion’s shoulder while her gaze was on her lover.

 

A white clad figure at the far left of the painting is known to be a senior female ascetic named Gautami, appears to be leading the path that Shakuntala and her companions are following. The positions of these characters represent the hierarchy in which the older one leads and orders while the younger ones follow. Thus, Shakuntala’s body gesture depicts the struggle and the break she needs to make between tradition and modernity.

 

Through this representation of Shakuntala, Ravi Varma appears to portray on the debate of social reform of women in India; where the female body in his painting is not merely an object for aesthetic pleasure but also carries a hidden social message. In addition, it also reflects on the result of the social exhchange at railways that leads to the idea of modernity.

 

The idea of tradition versus modern as well as the influence of British on India’s economy, art and social culture affected Ravi Varma as an artist and the depiction of his subjects, from the use of medium to the multiple meanings in his painting.

 

 

Catalogue Entry

 

During the 19th century, the British Empire colonialized India, which resulted in a strong influence towards India’s economy, art and social culture. The construction of the modern railway system by the British investors made an important impact on the infrastructure development in India that enable the integration of markets, increase trade and stimulate social exchanges. This shaped the pace and the traffic flow of railways, which made an impact on India’s economy as one of the most important system for commercial purposes. During this period, people of different trades benefited from it and one of them is an artist named Raja Ravi Varma Coil Thampuran who uses the communication and social networking tool made possible by railways to procure more commissions and to establish a name for himself in India.

 

Raja Ravi Varma Coil Thampuran, a self-taught Indian painter from Travancore, is one of the leading academic painters during the Modern Indian Art Movement where the British establish art schools to propagate western values in art education. This caused a drastic change in the concept of art in India, as there was a difference between teaching practices of British and India.

 

Ravi Varma adopted western conventions and perspectives which led to the combination between the tradition and the modern and resulted to a creation of a new genre of mythological oil painting where Hindu mythological subject matters are painted in a realistic way instead of stylized and unnatural way.

 

During this period, the British also influence and intervened India’s social culture as they initiated the legislation to change some of their social customs that pertain to the benefit of the Indian women such as the Civil Marriage Act and the Married Women’s Property Act. This influenced Ravi Varma on his depiction of the subjects in his paintings.

 

This painting was based on a scene from Kalidasa’s play – The Recognition of Shakuntala, where it is considered to be the best work of the classic Sanskrit writer who dramatized the story of Shakuntala in Mahabharata, a love story in one of the two great Hindu epics. She is the child of Vishwamitra, one of the most respected sages in ancient India and the Apsara Menaka, one of the most beautiful supernatural female beings.

 

Her parents abandoned her as a newborn child in the forest and were adopted by Kanva, a renowned rishi of the Treta yuga. Years later through an encounter in the forest, she was married to King Dushyanta and had a son named Bharata. However, the family had experienced a period of separation but eventually reunited.

 

This painting portrays the scene where the lovers -Shakuntala and Dushyanta, parts after their first meeting. Ravi Varma constructed a romantic and desirable feminine image of Shakuntala in the woods as she is seen looking back at her lover, Dushyanta while pretending to remove a thorn from her feet. She appeared to be caught between her companions, Anansuya and Priyamvada, and her lover Dushyanta as her arm was on one of her companion’s shoulder while her gaze was on her lover.

 

A white clad figure with a stick in the hand at the far left of the painting is known to be a senior female ascetic named Gautami, who also lived in Kanva’s ashram, appears to be leading the path that Shakuntala and her companions are following. The positions of these characters represent the hierarchy in the context where the older one leads and orders while the younger ones follow.

Thus, Shakuntala’s body gesture depicts the struggle and the break she needs to make between tradition and modernity.

 

Through this representation of Shakuntala, Ravi Varma appears to portray on the debate of social reform of women in India; where the female body in his painting is not merely an object for aesthetic pleasure but also carries a hidden social message. In addition, it also reflects on the result of the social exhchange at railways that leads to the idea of modernity.

 

The idea of tradition versus modern as well as the influence of British on India’s economy, art and social culture affected Ravi Varma as an artist and the depiction of his subjects, from the use of medium to the multiple meanings in his painting.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Anil Relia, Dr Ratan Parimoo (2014, Nov 18). The Indian Portrait – 5: Colonial influence on Raja Ravi Varma and his Contemporaries, from https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=W06OBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=Raja+Ravi+Varma+western+influence&source=bl&ots=Oxk2H4okGq&sig=VbuqB11pbpPNy4bzWUAd_ZCvcn8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAjgUahUKEwiOwoj58a3IAhVOBY4KHV-xB2E#v=onepage&q=Raja%20Ravi%20Varma%20western%20influence&f=false

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Rise of Modernity in South Asia, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rmsa/hd_rmsa.htm

 

Wikimedia Commons (Image of Painting)

 

Tapati Guha Thakurta (1991, Oct 26). Women as ‘Calendar Art’ Icons: Emergence of Pictorial Stereotype in Colonial India, from

http://www.jstor.org.ezlibproxy1.ntu.edu.sg/stable/4398221

 

Dinkar, Niharika (2009, Dec 1). Modernity at the crossroads: Ravi Varma’s “Shakuntala Looks Back in Love”, from

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Modernity+at+the+crossroads%3A+Ravi+Varma’s+%22Shakuntala+Looks+Back+in…-a0249685585

 

Dr. Santosh Jaganath (2003). The History of Nizam’s Railways Systems, from

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=lH0ACAAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=19th+century+india+railway+system+social&source=bl&ots=Zj4w7nvb_0&sig=VfYcAo1-DekTwtOrgTm3T7b1TiI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEYQ6AEwCmoVChMI6emXyOXwyAIV4yOmCh120QYZ#v=onepage&q=social&f=false