Raja Ravi Varma’s oil on canvas work Yashoda and Krishna portrays deities in Hinduism. Yashoda is a maternal figure in Hindu mythology, best known for raising Krishna as her own child, unaware at first of his divine nature. Krishna who is portrayed as a playful child, later becomes a central figure in the epic Mahabharata.

Born on 29 April 1848 in Kilimanoor, Kerala (then part of the state of Travancore), Raja Ravi Varma was raised in an aristocratic family with ties to the Travancore royal court, His early work attracted the attention of Ayilyam Thirunal Rama Varma, who supported his artistic development.

Under court painter Ramaswamy Naidu, and later through exposure to the European artist Theodor Jensen, Varma encountered oil painting and academic techniques such as perspective and chiaroscuro. These methods came to define his later work.

By the late 19th century, he was in demand as both a portraitist of Indian elites and a painter of mythological scenes. But his most far-reaching intervention came in 1894, when he established the Ravi Varma Press in Bombay. Through chromolithographs of his paintings, his imagery travelled far beyond courtly and elite spaces, entering homes across India. In the process, his visual interpretations of Hindu deities became widely circulated and familiar.

Varma died on 2 October 1906 in Kilimanoor.  

From Tate: Chiaroscuro is an Italian term which translates as light-dark, and refers to the balance and pattern of light and shade in a painting or drawing.