Bhagwat Prakash Gallery

Portraits, Kings, Landscape - The Practice of Painting at Udaipur

Successive generations of the Maharanas of Mewar commissioned and patronized several artists at their courts who went on to produce wonderful works, known across the world as belonging to the Mewar school of paintings with use of rich, vibrant colours. They capture several aspects of the lives of the Maharanas - royal processions, celebrations and rituals, visit to religious places or shrines, extravagant hunting scenes, animal fights and wrestling scenes. Drawn from this ancestral collection of the rulers of Mewar, the exhibition places paintings at the heart of Mewar's court life. It emphasizes on the role of paintings as going beyond their illustrative and documentary nature to reflect not only the power and authority of the Maharanas but also its strategic use in the self-fashioning of the Sisodia dynasty. It particularly acknowledges and celebrates the role and skill of Udaipur's artists; an underlying theme in the exhibition. This exhibition was made possible by the financial assistance provided by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.