Raja Ravi Varma’s Damayanti goes under the hammer for ₹11.09 crore

Raja Ravi Varma’s untitled portrait of Damayanti was sold for a whopping ₹11.09 (approx) crore at Sotheby’s New York Sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art here, fetching over double its upper estimate of ₹4.58 (approx) crore.

One of only a handful of Raja Ravi Varma works to appear at international auctions, the painting exemplifies the artist’s exceptional skill at portraiture.

Varma, who was declared a national treasure by the Indian government in 1979, drew inspiration from illustrations of old master paintings, photos of theatrical performances and other images from European magazines, and fused Western techniques with traditional Eastern sensibilities.

In the artwork, he uses the composition taken from a photograph of a European performance of ‘The Feast of Roses, L’inamorata’(1900) to re-imagine a scene from the Sanskrit play ‘Nala and Damayanti’.

Portraying the heroine Damayanti in a glimmering sari, Varma combines the classic Indian mythology with European realism to create a painting of brilliant resonance.

The auction also saw Horace van Ruith making a record with his Untitled work portraying a Brahmin household fetching an amount of ₹2.5 (approx) crore against an upper estimate of ₹39.32 (approx) lakh.

The works of other Indian artists such as Syed Haider Raza, Maqbool Fida Hussain and Jehangir Sabavala among others also sold well at the auction, making the sale realise a total collection of ₹43.25 crore (approx).

“We were delighted to see today’s auction — the only sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art taking place during Asia Week New York — comfortably exceeded the high estimate,” Yamini Mehta, International Head of Indian and South Asian Art, said.

The auction featured paintings and prominent works of art across centuries showcasing the vast range of artistic styles and creative output, while underlining the significance and desirability of provenance in the field.