Raja Ravi Varma of the Travancore Court mastered the academic style that flourished in the art schools set up by the British. Which medium did this academic style use to depict Indian subject matter?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Oil painting
Option (1) Watercolour — Incorrect. Abanindranath Tagore used watercolour for Journey’s End, a Bengal School work that turned away from the academic style.
Option (2) Gouache — Incorrect. Jamini Roy made Woman with Child in gouache on paper, in a style drawn from folk pat paintings.
Option (3) Oil painting — Correct. The British art schools taught the academic style of oil painting, a European medium. Raja Ravi Varma’s works are its best examples.
Option (4) Tempera — Incorrect. Nandalal Bose used thick tempera for his Haripura panels, recalling the folk scroll painters.
Note: This topic was not named in the CUET 2026 syllabus, but it was part of the NCERT chapter. In 2025 and 2026, NTA also asked questions on topics in NCERT that the CUET syllabus did not name. So our mocks have questions from every part of the NCERT chapter, to give you enough practice. Read the whole chapter, not only the sub-topics named in the syllabus.
NCERT (2026-27): “Raja Ravi Varma …What, However, flourished in the art schools set up by the British was the academic style of oil painting that used a European medium to depict Indian subject matter. The most successful examples of this type of painting were found away from these art schools. They are best seen in the works produced by self-taught artist, Raja Ravi Varma of the Travancore Court in Kerala. By imitating copies of European paintings popular in Indian palaces, he mastered the style of academic realism and used it to depict scenes from popular epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata.” |