Arcadópolis
Reclining Nair Lady
Raja Ravi Varma, 1902
What you see
The lady reclines across the length of the picture on a couch covered with patterned cloth. She props her elbow on a blue cushion, rests her head on her hand and looks straight at the viewer. An open book lies in front of her. Behind, on the right, a woman dressed in white holds up a round, pale fan.
The fabrics carry the color: the dark green of the gold-edged blouse, the white of the sari and the blue of the cushion. A green curtain hangs behind. Watch for the white and pink garland in her hair, the red bangles, the tiled floor at the lower right and the round gilded object in the left corner.
About Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906) was born in Kilimanoor, in the kingdom of Travancore (now Kerala, in southern India), into an aristocratic family linked to the royal house. He joined European academic oil technique with Indian subjects: scenes from the epics the “Mahabharata” and “Ramayana,” goddesses and Indian women. In 1894 he opened a lithographic press in Bombay, and his oleographs of Hindu gods circulated so widely that they became the popular image of those figures.
More by Raja Ravi Varma
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