Mymensingh
A museum of Zainul Abedin’s paintings and sketches in a riverside park on the Old Brahmaputra, where the great painter grew up.
Zainul Abedin (1914–1976), called Shilpacharya, the master of the arts, is the founding figure of modern art in Bangladesh. He grew up in Mymensingh, and the Brahmaputra, its boats and its people run through much of his work. His sketches of the Bengal famine of 1943 made his name, and he later founded the art college in Dhaka that became today’s Faculty of Fine Arts.
The museum was set up in the 1970s in a house by the river and is run as a branch of the Bangladesh National Museum. It holds a collection of his paintings and sketches along with some of his personal belongings.
The park around it is one of the town’s favourite places for an evening walk by the river.
See Zainul Abedin’s paintings and sketches, an hour or so.
Walk along the Old Brahmaputra and look for the scenes he painted: boats, sandbanks, ferrymen.
Watch the sunset over the river with tea and fuchka.
October to March; arrive in the afternoon to see the museum and stay for the riverside at sunset
In town, in Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Park on the riverbank; a short rickshaw ride from the town centre or the station.
