Monsoon: Indian Paintings of the Rainy Season

Lovers stealing out for secret trysts under cover of stormy nights, visits to the monsoon retreats of holy men, and divine beings associated with sources of water and rain are among the pictorial subjects in this exhibition, which explores visual representations of the rainy season in India.

Typically arriving each June with dramatic cloudbursts and intense rainfall along the southern and northeastern reaches of the subcontinent, the monsoon is the most eagerly anticipated weather phenomenon in India, sustaining lives, transforming landscapes, and raising human spirits. As an integral feature of South Asian life, the rains have long been celebrated in various mythologies, rituals, communal observances, and poetic expressions.

This selection of paintings, from northern India and the Himalayan foothills, conveys the ways in which Indian literature, music, and visual arts have mirrored and amplified broadly shared cultural perspectives on, and lived experiences of, the monsoon.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website