Raj Man Singh Chitrakar was the principal artist to the British Resident Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800-1894). Raj Man’s oeuvre includes paintings on Buddhist iconography, monuments & landscapes and natural history. Majority of his collections are deposited at the British Library, Royal Asiatic Society, British Museum (Natural History) and Musée Guimet, Paris.
On the occasion of the bicentenary of Nepal-UK relations, this exhibition commemorates the life and times of the polymath Brian H. Hodgson and the artist Rajman Singh whose contributions to the Himalayan studies remains invaluable.
The featured sketches capture important monuments and landscapes of the Kathmandu Valley as they were during the first half of the 19th century. More than 170 years and at least a couple of major earthquakes after, most of the monuments are still standing today. The landscape of Kathmandu, however, has changed beyond recognition. Fortunately, we have these drawings to look back at how we were once, and to understand what we are today.
The exhibition is jointly organised by the Taragaon Museum and Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP).
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