Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar was born on 18 March 1867. He was noted Indian painter from the British colonial era and postcard artist. His illustrations of women of that era doing their daily chores are especially popular.
Portrait of the Artist’s Wife
Dhurandhar was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. After schooling at Rajaram High School in Kolhapur he was accepted into J.J. School of Art, Bombay in 1890. In J. J. School of Art he was student of the artist John Griffiths. As a student he won many medals for his work. He graduated in 1895.
Sheshashayi - Laxminarayan
His famous painting, 'Women At Work', got him a British Government Award in 1892, while still a student. Another black and white illustration, 'Marriage Ceremony' won him a gold medal in 1908. After graduating from J. J. School of Art, Dhurandhar was offered a position at the same school in 1896 where he spent the rest of his career.
Radha and Krishna
He was exposed to the works of the European and British artists since the entire faculty at the school was from Britain. Unlike Eastern cultures, where art was oriented towards line drawing, in the West it was pictorial heavy. In 1910, he was appointed as the Head Master. He was appointed Inspector of Drawing and Craft in 1918 and served in that position until 1931. He was the Vice-Principal for two years before retiring.
Self Portrait
His popular works include documenting the city of Bombay and its people, as well as painting scenes from Hindu mythology and Omar Khayyam series. A prolific artist, Dhurandhar is said to have made some thousands of paintings and illustrations, including some that were turned into lithographic prints, such as his illustrations for the book Women of India by Otto Rothfield (1920).
Cover art of 1916 issue of Gujarati Magazine
Dhurandhar also designed postcards, provided the illustrations for the S. M. Edwardes By-Ways of Bombay (1912) and C. A. Kincaid's Deccan Nursery Tales, besides drawing cartoons for the Gujarati periodicals Aram and Bhoot. He also made religious illustrations published by the Ravi Varma Press. He wrote an autobiography in Marathi about his years at the J.J. School.
Lengha Choli
In 1926, he was commissioned by the ruler of Aundh State, Maharaja Bhawanrao Pantpratinidhi to make paintings on the life of Shivaji. One of his paintings still hangs at the Buckingham Palace, and another one is in the South Kensington Museum. Royal family palaces and maharaja retreats across India still own several of his works.