Moderne Maharajah, un mécène des années 1930 offers a unique opportunity to view a flawlessly curated collection of art and design

The young prince of Indore in the 1930s, Yeshwantrao Holkar II and his modernist palace, Manik Bagh, embodied everything that was European and avant-garde. As a major exhibition about him opens at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris this month, his son, Richard Holkar, looks back at his father’s friendships and tryst with the modern movement.1

Eckart Muthesius, retouched exterior view of the Manik Bagh Palace c. 1933
Eckart Muthesius, retouched exterior view of the Manik Bagh Palace c. 1933 © Collection Vera Muthesius / Adagp, Paris, 2019

From September 26, 2019 to January 12, 2020, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs will pay tribute to the extraordinary life of the Maharaja of Indore, an Indian prince whose passion for the avantgarde led him to assemble one of the most important private collections of Modernist furniture and decorative arts in the world. This visionary patron of the arts became a central figure of the international elite and the European cultural milieu of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1930, he ordered the construction of the Manik Bagh Palace in his homecity of Indore, India, embracing the architectural techniques of the European Modernist movement and decorating the palace with designs by Modernist icons including Louis Sognot and Charlotte Alix, Jean Puiforcat, Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier. Moderne Maharajah, un mécène des années 1930 will showcase over 500 objects from the Manik Bagh Palace, evoking the artistic exchanges that existed between Europe and India thanks to the singular and legendary taste of the Maharaja of Indore. Presented in the Central Hall of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, these 500 pieces of Modern design will be exhibited together for the first time, alongside never-before-seen archival materials that document the legacy of the Maharaja and Maharani of Indore.