Jaganmohan Palace Art Gallery And Auditorium — Attraction in Karnataka

Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, commonly known by its former name Jaganmohana Palace, is a royal mansion, arts museum and auditorium, and formerly an alternative royal residence of the ruling maharaja of Mysore, located in Mysore, India, about 200m (600ft) to the west of Mysore Palace. Began in 1856 and completed in 1861, the palace is one of the oldest modern structures in Mysore.

The royal family would reside at the palace when renovations and construction works would be underway at Mysore Palace. The last time the palace was inhabited by the royal family was in 1897 when the old Mysore Palace burned down due to a fire accident.The ruling king at this time was Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV.

The art gallery contains one of the largest collections of artefacts in South India. Most of these artefacts are paintings, prominent among which are those by Raja Ravi Varma, some of which demonstrate scenes from the Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha. The collection of paintings in the gallery exceed 2000 in number and these belong to different Indian styles of painting like Mysore, Mughal and Shantiniketan. Sixteen paintings of Raja Ravi Varma were donated to the gallery by Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar. Another important painting present here is the Lady with the lamp painted by the Sawlaram Haldenkar and is placed in a dark room where it is the sole exhibit. This is to give an illusion that the glow of the lamp is illuminating the face of the woman.Some other painters whose works are exhibited here include Nikolai Roerich, Svetoslav Roerich, Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, and the Ukil brothers (viz., Sharada Ukil, Ranada Ukil, and Barada Ukil).Another collection of paintings by Col. Scot, a British Army office during the Anglo-Mysore wars are said to be the only visual representation of those wars.Paintings made on a grain of rice which can be viewed only through a magnifier are also displayed here.

Other exhibits here include weapons of war, musical instruments, sculptures, brassware, antique coins, and currencies. A unique artefact exhibited here is a French clock which has a mechanism in which a parade of miniature soldiers is displayed every hour, beating drums marking the seconds, and a bugle...

One of the finest art galleries in india !!!! Must see if you are in mysore.

The front building is an auditorium which is opened only during some occasions ... The actual art gallery is behind this auditorium. It's a renovated old palace wherein the royals of mysore lived when the old wodden palace got burner down....

Tickets are to be bought at the entrance of the complex.

The art gallery has 2 or 3 floors At the ground floor there is the clock collection of the king , ivory artwork , sculptures of the kings and many many big paintings of royals and the events they took part in.... These paintings are very big and old and truely are soo beautiful

Photos are fully prohibited inside the gallery ❌❌❌ so couldn't take any .... Nonethless it was a feast for the eyes

The architecture of the building too is very pretty .... Soo many wooden structures , tall columns and multiple chandeliers... The whole setting is just too aesthetic.

As you go up there's a gallery of artwork by artists of various art schools like Bengali art school etc.... There's a whole section of Raja Ravi verma's artwork .... The highest amount of his art in one place in india ? ..... They are soo large and soo soo beautiful ... Completely mesmerizing!!!! Words could not describe how surreal the paintings felt when seen in real life.

There are many other artwork of various artists ... In another floor there's a whole room of wooden structures which are ornatley carved. seating , cupboards and many many more ...very royal in elegance ... Another room is filled with various objects of royal patronage like corals, royal utensils like glassware and many more

In last floor there's a room filled with board games of olderm times and musical instruments used and preserved by the royal family. The room is completley wallpapered which makes it look soo beautiful.

All in all... The place is heavily underrated as not much crowd was present when we visited .... It's truely a gem of a place.... A gallery of royal opulence and elegance of the highest order.. loved it through...

My rating is not about the exhibits of the palace, but about the poor maintenance of them. From outside the palace is in ruins, but it's just the maintenance issue as even painting it anew will make the difference. The insides are well maintained. The palace constitutes the biggest collection of Ravi Varma paintings and considered one of the greatest of Indian painters ever, Raja Ravi Varma's works are valued in millions. The last time a work by Ravi Varma was auctioned, it was sold for $4.58 million (₹38cr). Which means all the Works of Ravi Varma in Jaganmohan Palace will be valued at thousands of crores as some of these are his most popular ones. And one of them is Jatayu Vadham, one of the only two he painted and this version is the most popular one too. If you look close at it, you'll find a giant hole on the bottom left of the canvas! There are termite marks and tears across the bottom. The gallery itself isn't a temperature controlled or humidity maintained space. The paintings are exposed to elements. The same goes for the rest of the art works in the palace as well. The music instruments collected by HH Krishna Raja Wadiar were covered in dust and rust in the attic of the museum. There isn't even a signboard leading to the attic from the first floor and those who climbed the stairs by curiosity were lucky to see it. The gallery workers who only spoke Kannada were chilling in their mobile phones and occasionally telling the visitors not to take photographs.

I understand this is a private collection but I was thinking of the Ravi Karunakaran Museum at Alleppey in Kerala. RKM exhibits are valued only at a very small fraction of Jaganmohan Palace, but maintained exceptionally well. Jaganmohan Palace deserves to be better. They should develop the museum as a museum deserves to be and increase the ticket rate...