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Woman in a gold-bordered white sari holding a small child on her hip, beside a seated dog and a red armchair

There Comes Papa

Raja Ravi Varma, 1893

What you see

Mahaprabha stands at the center in a white sari with a gold border, holding a small child on her hip. The child, adorned with necklaces, bangles and anklets, gazes gravely to the left. She lowers her eyes and raises one hand with a small object between her fingers. At the lower left a shaggy dog sits; on the right, a red cloth drapes an armchair.

The background is dark and brownish, letting the white sari shine as the brightest area of the picture. The red cloth on the chair and the patterned rug warm the lower part. Look for the white flowers and the rose in her hair and the gray, white and black coat of the dog.

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.

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