Kerala VII Homage to Raja Ravi Varma by MF Husain

Husain salutes the great painter Raja Ravi Varma in this serigraph. A woman in gold and red sari stands holding a scroll, her figure outlined with modern clarity yet dressed in classical dignity. She becomes both portrait and metaphor,  the muse of Indian painting itself.

Colour is regal: golden ochres, reds, and deep browns, recalling Varma’s palette yet flattened in Husain’s style. Lines remain strong, giving modern lines  to traditional vibes.

Here Husain introduces Indian culture to the West directly: Varma was the painter who made gods human, who gave India’s mythology a visual face. Husain, the modernist, continues the lineage, translating that legacy into 20th-century idiom.

The work is dialogue: tradition and modernity, realism and outline, past and present. Husain honours Varma as a pioneer while showing his own freedom to reinvent.