The Yale Center for British Art has unveiled the 'Lucknow scroll,' a monumental 37-foot-long early 19th-century watercolor, following an extensive two-year conservation project. Part of the exhibition 'Painters, Ports and Profits,' the scroll offers a panoramic view of Lucknow, India, during the reign of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah. Due to its immense size and fragility, the museum is displaying the work in two stages, unrolling different sections over the course of the exhibition to manage light exposure and space constraints.
This public debut is significant for its exploration of the complex artistic and commercial exchanges between India and the East India Company. The scroll’s mysterious origins—with unknown artists and patrons—challenge traditional narratives of colonial art production, suggesting it may have been commissioned for local royalty rather than British officials. The successful stabilization of its complex layered paper and textile structure represents a major technical achievement for the YCBA conservation team, allowing for the study of a rare format that bridges Indian narrative traditions and British panoramic styles.