Unseen Rabindranath Tagore paintings, letters and manuscripts to be displayed in Mumbai

A previously unseen private family archive of Rabindranath Tagore is set to be presented to the public for the first time at an exhibition in Mumbai this month. Titled Rabindranath Tagore and Mungpoo: The Collection and Archive of Maitreyi Devi, the exhibition will open at Christie’s Mumbai on November 10 and run until December 18, 2026.

The collection offers a glimpse into the poet's creative process and personal relationships during the final years of his life. It brings together more than 25 artworks and over 150 letters and handwritten manuscripts, alongside signed first editions of his books, vintage photographs and personal belongings. The archive is associated with Tagore's visits to the home of Maitreyi Devi in Mungpoo, a village in the Darjeeling district, between 1938 and 1940.

Rabindranath Tagore's Mungpoo connection

Maitreyi Devi was a poet and writer who shared a close relationship with Tagore. She published her first collection of poetry in 1930, for which the Nobel laureate wrote a preface. She later married Dr Manmohan Sen, who worked at the government cinchona plantations in Mungpoo. Tagore visited their family home four times between 1938 and 1940.

The collection includes hundreds of letters exchanged between Tagore and Maitreyi Devi and her father, who was a close friend of the poet. Among the documents is a 1940 manuscript believed to be a draft of Tagore's memoir Chelebela, also known as My Boyhood Days. According to exhibition curator Nishad Avari, the manuscript is particularly significant because it is the only one among the 10 complete manuscripts in the exhibition that Tagore dictated to Devi.

The archive also features a portrait of Maitreyi Devi by Tagore and a landscape depicting the forests of Mungpoo, which served as a retreat for the poet. Personal belongings left behind at the family home, including a kurta and a lungi, will also be part of the display. The manuscripts contain doodles and corrections that offer insights into how Tagore's writing and visual art practices intersected.

Tagore began exploring painting more seriously in his sixties, developing sketches and doodles into elaborate works. The exhibition brings together examples of this artistic practice alongside his literary material.

The exhibition will be open to visitors at Christie’s Mumbai from November 10 to December 18. It is being presented in the year marking the 165th anniversary of Tagore's birth and the 260th anniversary of Christie's founding.

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