kochi most biographers reckon that a family portrait raja ravi varma executed in 1870 was his first commissioned work that makes 2020 the sesquicentennial of the career of a celebrated artist who redrew the contours of indias art aesthetic through talent and enterpriseonly two persons in the 1870 portrait of kizhakke palat krishna menon family have been identified menon himself and his son balakrishna menon seen with blue cloth on his left shoulderas art museums worldwide launch virtual tours of their collections for people who have been forced to stay indoors because of the lockdown ganesh shivaswamy foundation has launched five specially curated exhibitions comprising 200 images of paintings sketches and archival photographs of raja ravi varma on the google arts and culture platformthis would be the largest body of his work available at a single place said ganesh shivaswamy based in bengaluru the platform now showcases the first commissioned painting to the last available painting of mysore khedda shivaswamy is considered one of the largest collectors of the chromolithographs from the ravi varma press a passion he began at the age of 13shivaswamy said the images of paintings sketches and archival photographs were sourced from 18 private and institutional collections from across the world the collection has images from four palaces three government museums and various private foundations it even has one painting which is part of british royal collection and held in trust by queen elizabeth ii said shivaswamythe newly curated collection was launched by shubhangini raje rajamataji of baroda palace practically everyone we requested agreed to provide highresolution images for the project said shivaswamy who is now authoring a book on the print legacy of raja ravi varma