Lot 426: VARMA (RAVI)

A small photographic archive of paintings by Raja Ravi Varma comprising: 16 images mounted on card, one defective, one signed in the image by V.G. Chiplonkar, others on the mounts; an album containing 32 cabinet cards, several naming the retailer N.M. & Co. of Kalbedevi Road, Bombay, albumen prints, those on card typically 240 x 200mm., the album images 135 x 100mm., [c.1900]

Chiplonkar is known to have had an association with Baroda and may even have been the court photographer. The series of sixteen images seem to have been those in the Baroda Palace. Fourteen of these are still there, but two (including Lalla Rookh) were not listed in the study by Parsram Mangharam (Bangalore, 2002), and are presumed lost.