By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS
London : A historic 19th century painting by Raja Ravi Varma has been sold for 520,000 pounds (about $1 million) at a London auction of Indian art, but more than two dozen modern Indian paintings remained unsold.
London auctioneer Bonhams estimated Ravi Varma’s 1880 painting of a meeting between Indian royals and British officials at between 50,000 and 70,000 pounds but it sold for ten times the asking price Thursday.
The painting is of the maharaja of Travancore and his younger brother welcoming the governor-general of Madras on an official visit to what is now the southern state of Kerala in 1880.
It was bought by Mumbai art dealer Neville Tuli, who told the Press Association news agency that his acquisition was significant as “it is very important to bring back to India part of its artistic cultural heritage”.
The painting is set in Trivandrum, capital of the former princely state of Travancore and shows the third Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Temple-Grenville, who was governor-general of Madras from 1875 to 1880, being received by Visakham Tirunal, the younger brother of the maharaja of Travancore, who was to succeed his brother in May 1880.
The maharaja, Ayilayam Tirunal, is shown standing behind his brother.
As the most sought-after academic painter of colonial India who was an aristocrat himself, Ravi Varma was often invited to state occasions by British high officials and the Indian nobility, and recorded their activities on his canvases – notably the investiture ceremony of the Gaekwad of Baroda in 1881, and the elephant kheda operation in Mysore on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1906, the year of Ravi Varma’s death.
Despite the massive interest shown in the Ravi Varma painting, 25 out of about 57 modern Indian paintings on offer remained unsold, according to Bonhams.
Reputed modern Indian painters who could not find a buyer included Jamini Roy, K. Laxma Gouda, Madhvi Parekh, K.H. Ara, Badri Narayan.
While one of Jamini Roy’s paintings, titled “Horse”, sold for 2,400 pounds, three others – “Female Dancer”, “Seated Man with Hookah” and “Krishna and Yashodha” were ignored.
The top sellers of the day were Amrita Sher Gill, whose “Seated Girl” went for 32,000 pounds, Ganesh Haloi, Francis Newton Souza and M.F. Husain. They were among 32 modern Indian paintings that sold under the hammer.
Modern Indian art has been a regular feature at London auctioneers for over a decade, with Tagore, Husain, Haloi, Roy and Syed Haidar Raza figuring among the favourites. But at Thursday’s auction a painting by Raza had no takers.
A unique feature of Thursday’s auction was a group of Sikh paintings from the 19th century, including portraits of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Duleep Singh, his mother Rani Jindan and some religious manuscripts.