National Gallery of Modern Art

The National Gallery of Modern Art was established in Jaipur House in 1954, subsequent branches being opened at Mumbai and Bangalore.  This is India’s premier art gallery and contains a collection of more than 1,700 works by 2,000 plus artists.  Some of the oldest works preserved here date back to 1857.  With 12,000 square meters of exhibition space, the Delhi branch is one of the world’s largest modern art museums.  It is situated at the end of Rajpath, in the Central Hexagon around the India Gate.  

The building was formerly the residential palace of the Maharaja of Jaipur, hence known as Jaipur House. The butterfly-shaped building with a central dome was built in 1936 and designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-99), some years after the completion of Lutyens’s New Delhi.  The Central Hexagon around the India Gate where the buildings of leading princely states were situated was itself designed by Lutyens.