Upcoming exhibition features iconic painter Raja Ravi Varma's oleographs

Shakuntala Shakuntala Sakhi

Raja Ravi Varma is known for being an extraordinary artist and painter. But, back in the 1800s, he was also known for starting a lithographic printing press, reportedly in Ghatkopar, Mumbai.

Maharaja of Mysore

"Ravi Varma realised that his paintings were expensive and couldn't reach the common man. So, he started a printing press. Back then, there were no offset printers, so his was a lithographic printing press that used limestone blocks for colour. And since his paints used to be oil based for better quality, they were called oleographs," says Abhay Raj Shah, art collector and dealer.

This week, Shah will be exhibiting and selling over 60 single-edition oleographs of Raja Ravi Varma from his private collection.

The exhibition will feature framed oleographs depicting Hindu gods and goddesses and portraits of the royal families. "He was fascinated by women and they feature in a large number of his works," adds Shah. There will be a mix of common prints - Lakshmi, Saraswati, Krishna, and the Mysore princely family; and rare ones - Urvashi, Padmini, Shakuntala and the Baroda, Travencore and Udaipur families.

The story behind how Shah acquired these oleographs is interesting. His grandfather was the jeweller for 17 princely states, back in the 1800s. Around this time, Raja Ravi Verma, on the advice of then Dewan of Travancore, T Madhava Rao, started the lithographic printing press.

Fate, and a passion for collecting art, would unite the Shah family with the artist's work a century later.

"In 1971, when Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister, she stripped the princes of their titles, forcing many royal households to sell their treasures to sustain their lifestyles and palaces. My family had close ties with many of these princes and my father helped them sell artefacts from their homes - carpets, ivory, bronze, porcelain and paintings among others," says Shah. "That's how we started getting into curios and antiques."

Among the many treasures that were sold, was a big stash of oleographs believed to have been gifted by Ravi Varma to Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the Maharaja of Baroda State. "My father bought a lot of paintings and oleographs. He used to keep them locked away in a steel trunk in our garage," says Shah.

In 2012, he hosted his first exhibition of oleographs - the smallest ones (10 X 14 inches). He managed to sell them all. This exhibition will feature the larger sizes - 14 X 20 inches.