Draupadi in the Court of Virata. A Mahabharata scene. Every detail and emotion was important for Varma, who painted Indian mythology and history by combining his imagination with the academic realism and power of European art.



Musicians of India. Here Ravi Varma handles a difficult composition with ease to portray women of India's many regions. And linked to music, there's a certain harmony despite the diversity. Ravi Varma travelled widely around the subcontinent and took great interest in studying Indians, especially their costumes and skin-tones. To make this painting complete, he also included a lady in colonial European dress and hat (back row). The lady seated on the left represents the artist's native Travancore (now a part of India's southern Kerala state).



There Comes Papa. The artist's daughter was the model for this 1893 painting. Ravi Varma had five children. One of his sons, Rama Varma, was also a noted painter.


Udaipur Palace. One of Ravi Varma's few landscapes. He experimented with Impressionism in later works and by doing so was staying abreast with with European artists of the time.


The Soldier. This portrait of a Rajput soldier, presumably from the Udaipur Palace, was done in 1901, the same year as the painting of the palace itself.