Participants making their artworks

Exhibition opening - A Splendid Land: Paintings From Royal Udaipur

The much awaited, landmark exhibition A Splendid Land: Paintings From Royal Udaipur, was opened to the public at the Smithsonian, on 19th November 2022. The exhibition was inaugurated on 17th November 2022 in the presence of Mr. Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, Trustee, MMCF and HE Mr. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Indian Ambassador to the United States, both of whom were requested to present their thoughts on the exhibition.

Organized by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, in Washington DC, in joint partnership with Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, this exhibition has The City Palace Museum, Udaipur as its largest lender.

Curated by Dr. Debra Diamond and Dr. Dipti Khera, the exhibition features some seventy works of art dating between 1700 and 1900. It includes some thirty works on paper including paintings, photographs and sketches from Udaipur's City Palace Museum's collection, many of which have never been exhibited outside of Udaipur, let alone the world. The exhibits document important events, visits, processions and festivals celebrated, with an underlying focus on the mood (bhava) that the spaces including the city's palaces, lakes, and mountains evoked; beginning at Udaipur's center and continuing outward: first to the city, then to the countryside, and finally to the cosmos.

It features at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, in Washington, DC, from November 19, 2022 - May 14, 2023 and Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, from June 3, 2023 - September 10, 2023.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with contributions from several scholars, researchers, art historians and conservators, amongst others involved in the project.

Mr. Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar addressing the inaugural unveiling of exhibition "A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur"

Mr. Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar and HE Mr. T. S. Sandhu, India's Ambassador to the United States

Paintings displayed at the exhibition