Focus on this artwork and discuss the Subject and themes.
Although Ravi Varma was trained in the European styles of painting——employing the techniques for illusionism and oil painting——Ravi Varma's style was primarily Malayali.  The painting's subject includes a Nair lady adorning her hair in front of a mirror within a familiar household setting. Ravi Varma used techniques that used realism, but evoked styles from European artists such as Botticelli and Renoir. A common theme found in Ravi Varma's paintings are that of domesticity and female beauty, based on native values. Ravi Varma's paintings of Nair women in general were seen as part of a turning point in the discourse on female sexuality within the matrilineal context. It has been described that a notable feature about Ravi Varma's paintings of such women were the passive beauty and unerotic sensuality. Of even greater significance was the image of domesticity that Ravi Varma had presented.
women realism sexuality Europe oil painting illusionism painting Nair