Saraswati
Not on view
Saraswati is here shown sitting on a rock playing the vina and holding a manuscript; attributes denoting her role as a goddess of learning, music and cognition. This print is based on a series of oil paintings that Ravi Varma did prior to founding his press. The print clearly reflects its indebtedness to a prototype done in an oil medium.
According to Mark Baron, on the verso of this print is a rubber stamp from “A.K. Joshi & Co., Fine Art Publishers and Dealers in Pictures, 182 Kalbadevi Road, Bombay”. It appears that in the first years of the Ravi Varma Press, both Anant Shivaji Desai and A.K. Joshi were agents and distributors for the Ravi Varma press, but at some point early on there was a conflict between Ravi Varma and A. K. Joshi after which prints were distributed exclusively through Anant Shivaji Desai. As Ravi Varma sold the press in 1901, the dispute must have occurred between 1894–1900, giving us a date range for this print’s production.
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