1900 Raja Ravi Varma Press View of Masjid al-Haram (اَلْمَسْجِدُ ٱلْحَرَامُ‎

This is a rare c. 1900 Raja Ravi Varma chromolithograph view of the Masjid al-Haram (اَلْمَسْجِدُ ٱلْحَرَامُ‎), Mecca (مكة المكرمة), Saudi Arabia. Centered on the Kaaba (ٱلْكَعْبَة‎ ), the view illustrates the Great Mosque during the Ottoman Period, when it had 7 minarets. The view was printed in Lonavala, India, by Raja Ravi Varma Press, one the first Indian owned and operated presses on the Subcontinent.

A Closer Look

The Kaaba (ٱلْكَعْبَة‎ ) appears front and center, surrounded by arcades and supplementary buildings. All significant buildings, gates, and streets are labeled in Arabic. Some of the surrounding residential buildings are also noted - most of these have since been leveled for Saudi-era Mosque expansions. It bears an Arabic date, 1289 Hijri, roughly 1872 - presumably the date of the original artwork, as the lithograph itself could not have been produced any earlier than 1899, when the Raja Ravi Varma press moved to Lonavala.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired product. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it emerged as the dominate method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery.

Publication History and Census

This view was printed in the Lonavala workshop of the Raja Ravi Varma Press, Maharashtra, India. It is extremely scarce to the market. We note no institutional holdings, and it is not in the OCLC. However, we do note an example sold at Christies in April 2014, where paired with two other similar Varma views of Islamic sites, it fetched GBP 7,500.