Raja Ravi Varma's prints of Hindu gods

Born in Travancore, India, in 1848, Raja Ravi Varma achieved fame for his oil portraits of regional aristocracy and subjects from Hindu epics that combined Indian imagery with a European academic style of painting. But it was his recognition of the potential of chromolithography to make his images and those of other artists available to a wider public that ensured his legacy. Andy Rotman, professor of Religion and South Asian Studies at Smith College, who studies and collects prints by the Raja Ravi Varma Press, will lead visitors through Varma’s prints in the exhibition Transcendent Deities of India: The Everyday Occurrence of the Divine, focusing on the ways in which the pervasive reach of his prints shaped the visual vernacular of 20th century India. 

This program is free and open to the public, but space is limited, and online registration is required (see SIGN UP above).