A collage of two pictures is going viral on the internet with a claim that it shows paintings made by Raja Ravi Varma and Leonardo da Vinci respectively.
What are users saying?: Those sharing the post have drawn a comparison between both the paintings and said that the one made by da Vinci has received attention of millions, whereas Varma's painting is lesser known.
The collage claims to show Varma's painting on the left, and da Vinci's on the right.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
The post shared on Twitter (archive here) had recorded more than 8,00,000 views at the time of writing this report. Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here. We received a query about the viral claim on our WhatsApp tipline.
What's the problem with the claim?: The purported painting on the left is not the actual one made by Varma, but a recreation of his art. It has been on the internet since 2019 and features Tollywood actor Swathi Reddy.
How did we find out?: We performed a Google Lens search on the image and came across a Facebook post uploaded on the official handle of actor Swathi Reddy.
The post was uploaded on 16 June 2019.
It was posted with a caption that said, "Radha in the Moonlight | Raja Ravi Varma Recreation series by Sruvam Photography. Old school girl."
Taking this forward, we went through the social media handles of Sruvam Photography and found the same image uploaded on their Instagram page.
It was uploaded on 16 June 2019 and the caption mentioned that the picture was a part of a recreation series and also carried credits.
The second image showed a comparison between the original painting and its recreation.
Radha in the moonlight: It is arguably one of the most beautiful paintings of Varma. The painting was created in 1890, and its medium was 'oil on canvas'. You can read more about it here.
Conclusion: A collage in which one picture shows a recreation of Raja Ravi Varma's painting is being shared on the internet with a false claim.
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