The Portrait of a Rich Lady

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This new art perception completely revolutionized the iconographic vision of Indian art, designated as ‘modern’, with the result that even a cobbler in rags revealed on the artist’s canvas a gentleman’s dignity and a prince’s grace. Raja Ravi Varma and artists influenced by his perception conceived their new men and women with a different sense of dignity irrespective of their social status or economic condition. In the entire body of portraits, portrait-based compositions, and even mythological figures, that the brush of Raja Ravi Varma or other artists in his line created there revealed uniformly this unique characteristic and it largely defined this new art. This art, realistic as it was, strove to discover ‘likeness’, not an individual’s identity, and thus, it portrayed more often his class. This portrait of the lady, though a contemporary work, is a great masterpiece in this line of the late nineteenth century art idiom. More than an individual, she has been portrayed as the icon of a class.

This new art did not diffuse its figures, the painting’s focal point and primary concern, into background details except what defined an aspect of the personality of the portrayed figure or broke the monotony of the blank canvas-space. Different from the landscape of a miniature painting having everything in it from a char-bagh garden in the foreground to a distant shrine, or hill, on the far-end, this new art usually preferred a monochromic backdrop with a subdued form, or without any, not distracting the viewing eye from the main theme. This perception of the late nineteenth century art in regard to the kind of background is the perception of this contemporary painting too. It portrays its figure against a similar dark deep background : a wall painted in slightly varying tones of dark maroon with no forms defining it except a flower pot motif, a panel of ceramic tiles having vine designing patterns and two courses of floral creepers, all rendered in folk style and subdued colour-tones.

The young damsel, possessed of great beauty and gold-like lustre, has been portrayed as seated on a double cushion with a stool-like height made of bright dark green silk adorned with pure gold butis. Natural as is her seating posture, her figure reveals great ease and composure. One with a round face, large arched eyes, sharp features, broad forehead and well defined neck, the young damsel has been drawn with a tall slender figure possessed of unique grace and figural beauty. Her heavy gold jewellery studded with precious rubies and her expensive ensemble are denotative of her high status, perhaps one from a royal family or other class of the society’s upper strata. Her gold-like glistening palms and feet painted in scarlet dye reveal great aesthetic beauty.

She is wearing on her lower half a sari-like designed lehenga made of the textile woven with a mix of silk and gold thread. Besides the entire field embellished with gold-flower motifs it has heavy gold borders, a broader one on the bottom, and a less broad, on the upper side. The blouse that she is wearing is also made of the same textile. It has heavy gold borders on sleeve-ends, neck and bottom. An ‘odhani’ – her most artistically worn upper wear, is another beautiful component of her ensemble. Made of the textile woven of gold-thread mixed with silk, dyed in emerald green, the odhani has been woven with pure gold borders, and the field, embellished with knot-motifs. She has on her person a few selective ornaments revealing great taste and elegance. All ornaments, a long chain with bead-design on her breasts, necklace, ear-ornaments, pendant on the forehead, bangles, feet-ornaments, rings, all are made of gold. Ruby seems to be her chosen stone and it is with rubies that her ornaments are studded.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.

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Oil painting technique – India centric

Oil painting is the most interesting technique in art. Unlike other paintings or art forms, oil painting is a process in which colored pigments are painted on the canvas with a drying oil medium as a binder. This medium helps colors blend beautifully to create layers and also makes them appear rich and dense. Several varieties of oil are used in this painting such as sunflower oil, linseed oil, etc., and depending on the quality of the oil, a particular consistency of the paint is developed. With the use of an oil medium, the painting gets a natural sheen on the surface which appears extremely attractive. India is famous for its old tradition of making oil paintings. This art form was brought by Europeans in the 18th century and is now practiced by almost all well-known artists. Nirmal, a small tribal town in the state of Telangana is the center of traditional oil paintings in India where the local people practice it with dedication. Most Indian artists still use the traditional technique of oil painting.

Canvas of the required size is prepared

The artists use either a wood panel or canvas made from linen or cotton. Sometimes the canvas is stretched onto the wooden frame to form a solid base, or cardboard may be used. The canvas is coated with a layer of white paint or chalk mixed with animal glue. This mixture is then smoothed and dried to form a uniform, textured surface. The wooden panel is more expensive and heavier but its solidity is an advantage in making detailed paintings with ease.

Sketch is drawn on the canvas

Now the artist starts to draw the subject of the painting on the canvas using the actual charcoal or a charcoal pencil. Sometimes, he may sketch with thinned paint as well.

Oil paint is applied using paint brushes or palette knives

Now that the rough sketch is prepared, the artist is now ready to paint. Oil paint, a special paint that contains particles of pigments suspended in a drying oil (usually linseed oil), is again mixed with oil to make it thinner for applying it on the canvas. Proper consistency of the paint is maintained to avoid its breakage. The most important rule for the application of oil paint is “Fat over lean” in which the first layer of paint is thin and later, thicker layers are applied. This means that each additional layer of paint contains more oil. This results in getting a stable paint film. Traditionally, paint was applied using paint brushes but now the artists also use palette knives to create crisp strokes. To paint using this technique, the edge of the palette knife is used to create textured strokes that appear different from that of a paintbrush. Sometimes, oil paints are blended simply using fingers for getting the desired gradation.

Smaller oil paintings, with very fine detail, are relatively easier to paint than larger ones. The most attractive feature of these paintings is the natural shiny appearance that is obtained on the surface because of the use of oil paint. The blending of colors looks extremely realistic and this is the reason why oil paintings are loved by everyone throughout the world.