Shankuntala Janam

Oleograph on paper pasted on mount board

17.75 x 12.25 in (45 x 31 cm)

The work has a printed inscription on the lower right stating that the print was printed at the Ravi Udaya F.A.L Press, Ghatkopar, Bombay

This work will be shipped unframed

This oleograph published by the Ravi Varma Press depicts baby Shankuntala. The scene is set immediately after Shakuntala is born. The mother, Menaka, devoid of all maternal feeling for the baby taunts the father Vishwamitra with the child. This is the moment where she unhesitatingly declines all future responsibility over the baby and attempts to give it to the father. The father also refuses the child which will be left abandoned in the forest. This oleograph is important as it is the first chromolithograph printed at the Ravi Varma Fine Art Lithographic Press in 1894.