Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial to display paintings on Sikhs

Kolkata, Punjab: To celebrate Gurpurb, the Victoria Memorial Hall here has put on display a relatively modern miniature painting of the first Sikh Guru and plans to hold an exhibition of old paintings centred on the community next year.

The miniature by W Kapoor Singh, a non-celebrity, shows Guru Nanak flanked by two others, one playing a musical instrument, in the shade of a tree. It was acquired by the Victoria Memorial Hall in 1911.

Not too much is known about it, conceded its curator and secretary Jayanta Sengupta. “It is not a Mughal miniature. We do not have a lot of details about it in our accession records. My hunch is it was painted in the middle of the 19th century. So it is a comparatively a modern miniature painted in old style.

“It is a very stunning painting. W Kapoor Singh was not one of the celebrity artists but very skilled,” Sengupta said. The painting, 2.5 ft by 1.5 ft, will be on display throughout November.

Sengupta said they intended to hold an exhibition showcasing the substantial number of paintings it had on the Sikhs.

“We have paintings on Guru Teg Bahadur and Guru Nanak and also paintings by British artists on Sikh commoners. We are planning an exhibition of Sikh paintings next year,” the official said.

Source: HT

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