Smt. Sujata Prasad, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Culture inaugurated an exhibition “Indian Historical monuments in Company Painting School” in Ajanta Hall, National Museum, New Delhi today. The exhibition will remain open to the public till 27th August, 2017. The exhibition presents illustrated paintings on Indo-Islamic Monuments with scenes of Mughal Architectures made with photo realistic approach.
The National Museum took a new initiative on a “Small Temporary Exhibition” from its reserve collection. The exhibitions will be based on several themes, so that it will attract large number of visitors to view new artifacts every fortnight. Through such programme National Museum is trying to draw visitor’s attention and allows them to experience the collection on many significant art pieces of reserve storage, which generally remains out of focus.
The first temporary exhibition was on “Traditional Headgear of India” from the Decorative Arts department. It was inaugurated by Smt. Rashmi Verma, Secretary- Culture & Tourism on 24th July 2017 at Ajanta Hall (First floor). This exhibition arranged to showcase printed turban, embroidered dopalli and Maratha stitched cap and zardozi cap specially designed for occasional and ceremonial bases.
This exhibition “Indian Historical monuments in Company Painting School” will present illustrated paintings on Indo-Islamic Monuments with scenes of Mughal Architectures made with photo realistic approach. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries India witnessed a new genre of painting popularly known as ‘Company School’ as it emerged primarily under the patronage of the British East India Company. The British officers trained Indian artists in British water color style for documenting Indian daily life scene, monuments, art and culture in the form of Paintings for carrying out as souvenir to their homes while returning to the England. Some of these Company Paintings are illustrated with scenes of Mughal Architectures. As these painting were part of documentation most of these architectures are painted in full profile such as Red Fort of Delhi (1639-48 CE) and Taj Mahal (1630-48 CE) while a few of them depict only important part of the monument for highlighting special features like Interior of the Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula.
Twelve paintings from the Reserve Collection, National Museum are exhibited in this exhibition. Some of them are:
- Chini ka Rauza
Agra
Company Period, 19th Century C.E.
Paper 8.9 x 7.4 inch
Acc. No. 49.19/308
- Buland-Darwaza
Fatehpur Sikri
Company Period, 19th Century C.E.
Paper 8.9 x 7.4 inch
Acc. No. 49.19/309
- Gateway of Taj Mahal
Agra
Company Period, 19th Century CE
Paper 8.8 x 7.4 inch
Acc. No. 49.19/310
- Coloured sketch of Red Fort
Agra from the riverside
Company Period, 19th Century C.E.
Paper 8.8 x 7.3 inch
Acc. No. 49.19/312
- Railing around the Graves inside the Taj Mahal
Agra
Company Period, 19th Century C.E.
Paper 8.9 x 7.3 inch
Acc. No. 49.19/317
- Akbar’s Tomb
Agra
Company Period, 19th Century C.E.
Paper 8.8 x 7.4 inch
Acc. No. 49.19/321
The temporary exhibition from the Reserve Collection of National Museum is formulated to display variety of objects from the National Museum Reserve Collection for six months. The schedules for the exhibitions are as follow:
- Stuccos from Taxila – August, 2017
- Exploring Seals: Silver, copper, stone seals with bilingual and trilingual inscriptions from the Epigraphy – September, 2017
- Ornamental Arms and Armour – September, 2017
- Shoes and sandals from Central Asia and – October, 2017
- Folk objects of Bengal : With special reference to the wooden dolls and sholapitha objects – October, 2017
- Man: the creator, the development of tool making by Early man. It will deal with early man and the tools they have used during different time span of evolution – November, 2017
- Calligraphy in the Holy Quran – November, 2017
- Western Art in Indian Museum – December, 2017