ARTS & CULTURE

What’s Up From the Smithsonian

Photographic keepsakes, garden paintings from the maharajahs and Fritz Scholder’s Indian identity on canvas

Anika Gupta
Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur
Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. Sackler Gallery, SI

Close to the Heart
Photographic jewelry, including pocket watches adorned with babies' photos and brooches bearing lovers' likenesses, was all the rage in the mid-1800s. See these keepsakes at the National Portrait Gallery, October 24.

Colorful Statement
Fritz Scholder's paintings examine his mixed Indian heritage. His works, on view for the first time since his death in 2005, are at the National Museum of the American Indian's D.C. and New York City locations, November 1.

Sinful Dealings
Set in Jerusalem's back alleys and millionaire mansions, Nina Burleigh's Unholy Business, from Smithsonian Books, relates the intriguing story of the Holy Land's most infamous relic, the James Ossuary, as it goes from acclaimed biblical artifact to disgraced modern forgery.

Garden View
Until now, only maharajahs had seen the garden paintings that festooned the Indian royal palaces at Jodhpur. Starting October 11, the Sackler Gallery showcases 61 of them.

Vision and Verse
Elihu Vedder illustrated his 1884 translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with graceful drawings, now on display in a traveling exhibit beginning November 14 at the Phoenix Art Museum.

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Elihu Vedder's illustration his translation for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Cup of Death, 1883-1884. Smithsonian American Art Museum
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Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. Sackler Gallery, SI
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Fritz Scholder's paintings examine his mixed Indian heritage. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.
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Girl Child by an unidentified artist. Larry J. West, New York / NPG, SI
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Unholy Business by Nina Burleigh. SI Books

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Anika Gupta

Anika Gupta’s writing has appeared in India and the United States, including in Business Today magazine, where she served as its first digital content editor, the Hindustan Times newspaper and Smithsonian magazine. Currently, she is a Master's student at MIT, where she studies user-generated content and mainstream media culture. She's also a science writer, media blogger, and essayist.