A Splendid Land: Exhibition takes landscape Paintings from Royal Udaipur around the world
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in association with the City Palace Museum in Udaipur and Friends of Mewar, USA is organising an international exhibition displaying about 75 pieces of art from various collections, dating from the 1700s to the 1900s.
The serene and picturesque environs of City of Lakes in Rajasthan has long been a place of muse for artists, interior designers and landscape architects across the world. Its glorious past is elaborately manifested by painters as in the 18th century, Udaipur’s erstwhile artists focused on large-scale paintings of the city’s palaces, streets, and landscapes, in turn setting themselves apart from other Indian painters.
They attempted to capture the sensuous and lively experiences of these exotic locations in a way that would evoke the spring of delight or amazement in a wondering soul.
The exhibition entitled ‘A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur’ will be held at The National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC from November 19, 2022 to May 14, 2023 and at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio from June 10, 2023 to September 10, 2023.
Many of these paintings have never been exhibited outside of Udaipur, while some have never been exhibited anywhere in the world. 30 works on paper—including a sketch, paintings, and photographs—are from the collection of The City Palace Museum, Udaipur. A digital projection, sound recordings, and poetic verses will also be displayed alongside masterpiece artworks.
The artworks chronicle significant occasions, journeys, processions, and celebrations with an underlying emphasis on the mood (bhava) that the locations, such as the city’s palaces, lakes, and mountains, evoked—starting at Udaipur’s Centre and expanding outward to the city, then to the countryside, and finally to the cosmos.
The National Museum of Asian Art is committed to advancing the knowledge of Asian art through a diverse range of exhibitions, publications, conservation projects, research, and educational and public events. Recent major exhibitions of Indian art here include Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur.
