Kilimanoor Palace
A palace dedicated to a prince responsible for fetching Kerala a prominent place among the wizards of painting. He is of royal birth, but his deeds fetched him fame in a vocation, which had few takers among his peer group. Raja Ravi Varma the renowned painter from Kerala and his birth palace, the Kilimanoor Palace holds a very special place in the hearts of those who love the fine art of painting. His fame and his style of painting transcended the borders of Kerala and Ravi Varma soon got reckoned as a master painter of international repute.
His magical strokes and the amazing skill, by which he portrayed subjects of his paintings on canvas, always left others to admire its aesthetics as well as technical finesse. Kilimanoor Palace, in the present day Thiruvananthapuram District is where Raja Ravi Varma first learned the rudiments of painting as a five-year-old, when he started to draw using charcoal making the palace walls his canvas. The inspiring settings and the palace lifestyle later became themes for some of his renowned works.
The Kilimanoor Palace, spread over 15 acres of land comprises the traditional residential structures of Kerala like the Nalukettu, small and medium sized buildings, ponds, wells and sacred groves.
At the Kilimanoor Palace, the main entrance leads one to the studio, where Raja Ravi Varma used to spend a great deal of time for realising some of his finest creations that went on to captivate the minds of many a connoisseur of art as well as students and researchers.
A visit to this studio adjoining the Kilimanoor Palace is an experience to be part of a space where once a master painter unleashed his magical strokes to produce some of the outstanding works, still admired by artistes worldwide. On display in the studio are the reproduced works of Raja Ravi Varma’s famous paintings, which without doubt would serve as a source of inspiration to budding artists as well as professionals.
