Sree Chithra Art Gallery houses one of the best collections of traditional Indian painting in Kerala, with a particular strength in Tanjore paintings, Mughal miniatures, Kangra school works, and the Kerala mural tradition. The gallery was founded in 1935 by the Travancore royal family and later taken over by the state government. It sits within the museum compound beside the Napier Museum, making it easy to combine both in a single visit.
The Indian classical collection is the core of the gallery, but there are also works by Raja Ravi Varma, the 19th-century Kerala painter who created the popular iconography of Hindu deities that you'll recognise from calendar art across India. Varma was born near Thiruvananthapuram, and his presence in the gallery gives it a local dimension. The Bali and Java collection in a separate wing is an unexpected bonus — paintings and artefacts from the Southeast Asian courts that had contact with the Travancore trade network.