Raja Ravi Varma: An Everlasting Imprint - The Shaping of an Artist - Volume 1 Hardcover – 15 March 2023

I absolutely loved this 👍. Art books generally seem very tedious to read and go thru after the initial few pages . But this book is visually so pleasing and so well designed and superbly well written you will not want to put it down. Amazing book and more than worth its value

It pains me to give this book less than a 5 star rating since books such as these need to be encouraged. But, the fulfillment of such need should not be at the cost of quality.Though, it is evident that a lot of love and effort has been expended in creating this book, where the book stumbles is in the design of the book as an object of art in itself.While paintings of Raja Ravi Varma are glorious, here are some design lapses that were readily apparent:1. The fonts seem to have been chosen without any thought. Instead of choosing a font that harks back to the early 20th century and is in harmony with the elegance of Raja Ravi Varma's painting, we have what looks like Times New Roman font in bold for the main text and some weird font for the headings which altogether give a very garish look.2. Margins are ridiculously small, especially given the size of the book. Small paperbacks have more margin.3. The main text is in two columns like some research paper format which again makes no sense given that there is no dearth of space given the size of the book. Also, the spacing between the columns is too small.4. For the chapter separators, an ultra modern horse based design is used that belongs more to a chess website than a book of Raja Ravi Varma paintings.5. Some full page paintings are followed on the facing page with title of the said painting and a circular cutout from the same painting. While this does look nice, the same treatment is not followed for all full page paintings. The lack of consistency is jarring.6. The full page paintings include the description of the painting with the image itself which detracts from the beauty of the painting.I was looking forward to purchasing the rest of the volumes. But, this has been a disappointment. I hope that the author and the publishing company engage a better book designing agency for the remaining volumes.

The imagery is amazing, the story telling even more so. A must buy for anyone that loves art! Ravi Varma has never been examined like this before!