Raja Ravi Varma epitomized the new "gentleman artist" who helped disseminate romantic notions of the artist as a creative genius, as well as reinforce the idea of the "aura" of a work of art, an idea absent in works of artist-craftsmen of the previous era. Hailing from Kerala, the aristocratic Raja Ravi Varma made Bombay his home for over a decade. Self-taught , Varma had learned by watching European painters, sought with equal enthusiasm by the Raj and the Indian aristocracy.
What ensured Varma's enduring fame was his innovation in the genre of history painting in India, applying Victorian academic art to ancient Indian epics and literary classics. In addition, Ravi Varma reconfigured the whole print culture by introducing a striking illusionist iconography based on his history paintings and by producing high quality reproductions.
