V. P. Karmarkar

Vinayak Pandurang Karmarkar (1891-1966) was born in Raigad district in the year 1891.His father used to make Ganesh idols. Karmarkar was interested in drawing and get his first sculpture lessons at home from his father. That time, the district collector Otto Rothfield saw a drawing of Shivaji made by Karmarkar and realized his talent. His efforts were able to get Karmarkar enrolled in the JJ School of Arts. He was later trained at Calcutta School. He aslo started his own studio in Kolkata for some period but had to return back to Bombay due to lack of patronage over there. After that, he was taken up by the Maharastran nationalists who wished to commemorate the nationalist icon Chatrapati Shivaji with a life size equestrian statue. He sculpted the bronze statue of King Shivaji which weighs 8 tons and is 13.5 feet high. This statue is situated at the Military preparatory school in Pune. He did some excellent work by making sculptures of Gopalkrishna Gokhale, Acharya Kriplani and Matsyagandha. Later he studied at the London Royal Academy. He was awarded the Padmashri by the Indian government in 1962.