National Gallery of Modern Art
Jaipur House
A maharaja's butterfly-plan palace on the India Gate hexagon, holding the country's modern art.
History
Jaipur House was built in 1936 as the Delhi residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur, one of the princely houses given plots on the hexagon around India Gate. Its plan is a butterfly: a central dome with wings spreading either side. In 1954 the new republic turned it into the National Gallery of Modern Art, and a large new wing was added behind it decades later.
The collection begins in the late eighteenth century with British artists painting India and runs forward through the Bengal School, the Progressives and after. Its centre of gravity is the world's largest holding of Amrita Sher-Gil, whose short career bent Indian painting toward something neither colonial nor revivalist.
Nearest Metro
Central Secretariat, Yellow and Violet lines, is the nearest station, about two kilometres off, on the same stretch as India Gate and Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Parking
A car park is available within the Jaipur House grounds.
Food & Canteen
A small café operates in the newer wing; otherwise nothing on-site.
Visiting Tips
Closed Mondays. The new wing and the old house are easy to confuse — start in the house and work backwards.
- 01The Amrita Sher-Gil roomsThe largest collection of her work anywhere, including the paintings she made after returning from Paris.
- 02The DaniellsThomas and William Daniell's aquatints of an India that was still being surveyed as it was drawn.
- 03The dome galleryThe old palace rotunda, where the hang changes and the acoustics are strange.