Indian painting went through several changes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Arrange the following developments in the correct order:
(A) The Bengal School of Art emerged.
(B) The academic style of oil painting flourished in the art schools set up by the British, and Raja Ravi Varma mastered the style of academic realism by imitating copies of European paintings.
(C) With the entry of photography in India, the camera offered a better way of documentation.
(D) With the rise of nationalism, Raja Ravi Varma’s academic style came to be looked down upon as foreign.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (C), (B), (D), (A)
(C) (first): Photography came to India in the mid-nineteenth century. The camera offered a better way of documentation, so the earlier style of painting declined.
(B) (second): As that earlier style declined, the academic style of oil painting flourished in the art schools set up by the British. Raja Ravi Varma, a self-taught artist of the Travancore Court, mastered it by imitating copies of European paintings.
(D) (third): By the end of the nineteenth century, nationalism was rising. His academic style now looked foreign and too western for Indian myths and history.
(A) (fourth): The Bengal School of Art grew out of this nationalist thinking in the first decade of the twentieth century.
NCERT (2026-27): “Company Painting …It is this mixture of traditional and European style of painting that came to be known as the Company School of Painting. …This style declined with the entry of photography in India in the mid–nineteenth century as camera offered a better way of documentation. 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. …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. …With the rise of nationalism in India by the end of the nineteenth century, this academic style embraced by Raja Ravi Varma came to be looked down upon as foreign and too western to show Indian myths and history. It is amidst such nationalist thinking that the Bengal School of Art emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century.” |