বাংলায় পড়ুন
After over two decades the Royal Gallery at Victoria Memorial Hall is all set to be reopened where the second largest oil painting in the world will be on display. At present renovation work of the gallery is on.
Curator Jayanta Sengupta said that the last leg of the gallery’s renovation work was in progress and it was likely to be opened by mid-March. He also said that artists have naturally expressed their enthusiasm over the oil paintings that have been kept on display at this place.
The centre of attraction of the Royal Gallery will be ‘The Jaipur Procession’ – a work of Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin. Believed to be the second largest oil painting of the world, it measures 23 feet in length and nearly 17 feet in height. The painting, created during the British Raj, is themed around a procession of elephants and horses in 1876. It shows the Prince of Wales and Maharaja Ram Singh of Jaipur seated on the first elephant of the procession. The painting was initially in the USA. Later Maharaja of Jaipur bought it and gifted to Victoria Memorial in 1905. Since then it had been one of the major attractions here and is expected to be a huge crowd puller once the gallery is open to the public.
At the entrance hall, an exhibit on the making of Victoria Memorial will be added.
Sources said that other than the Royal Gallery, the Portrait Gallery too is under renovation. A lot of thought and money have been spent on the beautification of these galleries for the visitors. Many indoor plants have been put in place. The cracks in the marbles have been repaired and places from where water used to seep in have been sealed. The air-conditioning system has also been upgraded for the convenience of visitors. Sources said that an amount of Rs 60 crore allocated by the Union ministry of culture has been spent on renovation.
The Victoria Memorial Hall remains to be one of the most favoured visited spots both by people of Kolkata and tourists. In 2018 it had received a footfall of about 38 lakh. The Royal Gallery, Portrait Gallery, Durbar Hall, and the Calcutta Gallery is expected to garner more interest among people and looking at that the closing time has been extended by two hours, to 8 pm on weekends.
Victoria Memorial authorities want the renovated galleries to be reopened by a Central minister although no names have been zeroed in on, at present.
