Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and music, rests upon a swan in a lotus pond.
This was prodused by Ravi Varma Press Karla Lonavala around circa 1920-25 & it is totally inspired by Bengal Print**
**Bengal Prints
She holds the veena in one hand, and manuscripts in the other. The sun forms a halo that radiates behind her crown. This brightly coloured lithograph was produced sometime between 1878 - 1880 by the Calcutta Art Studio. Many figures were rendered during this period as local adaptations of western realism, with deeply emotive postures and gestures bringing deities to life.
The Studio was established in 1878 by artist Ananda Prasad Bagchi and others. Calcutta Art Studio, like the Raja Ravi Varma Press and Chitrashala Press, was a prominent producer of lithographic posters, created en masse to cater to a rising ‘middle-class spirituality’ in urban centres of India in the late nineteenth century. latter on Ravi Varma press used same version including Anpurna Shivji lithographas.
The most popular type of prints were based on older paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses. Many were derived from Kalighat paintings. These were enthusiastically purchased in local bazaars and in the vicinity of temples, and then adorned household walls.
While Calcutta Art Studio is best known for its ‘Hindu Sacred Pictures’ series comprising images of Sita, Annapurna, Ganga Devi, Rama, Shiva, and Kali, it also produced scenes from the Sanskrit epics and portraits of contemporary Bengali leaders.
