Kitsch to coveted, the new rush for Ravi Varma prints

The sale of Raja Ravi Varma’s original oil painting ‘Yashoda and Krishna’, which stormed past Rs 167 crore earlier this month to become the most expensive Indian artwork, has had ripple effects beyond the auction room. Among collectors of his oleographs — specialised lithographic prints, or chromolithographs, textured to resemble oil paintings — who have spent decades chasing works once dismissed as mass-produced decor, there is now a sense of renewed urgency. And rising value.
In ‘Aja Vilapam’ (King Aja’s Lament), the 19th-century artist captures Aja in a moment of devastating grief, seated beside the lifeless body of Queen Indumati as a garland slips from his hand. Drawn from ‘Raghuvamsha’, Kalidasa’s epic poem, the work distils a tragic episode of love and loss. An original oil of ‘Aja Vilapam’ today would likely command upwards of Rs 100 crore.