How did Ravi Varma combine European painting styles with Indian themes?

Ravi Varma, a renowned artist from the princely state of Travancore (now in Keralam, India), is celebrated for synthesizing Hindu mythological subject matter with European artistic conventions. He achieved this by applying Western techniques of perspective and composition to render realistic oil paintings of gods, goddesses, and characters from epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.1

Varma mastered these European realist and naturalist styles despite limited formal training, learning the basics of oil painting in secret and observing the work of visiting Western artists. By utilizing these techniques, he transformed traditional religious iconography into dramatic, lifelike scenes.1

Furthermore, Varma pioneered the use of lithographic reproduction to mass-produce his work as oleographs. This innovation made his unique blend of European-style realism and Indian themes accessible to the general public, deeply embedding his visual interpretations of deities like Saraswati and Lakshmi into Indian popular culture.1