<P> Situated at the end of Rajpath, in the Central Hexagon around the India Gate, the building was a former residential palace of the Maharaja of Jaipur, hence known as Jaipur House . The butterfly - shaped building with a central dome and built in 1936, and designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, after the construction of Lutyens' Delhi . The Central Hexagon around the India Gate, where the buildings of leading princely states were situated, was itself designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens . </P> <P> Though the idea of the National Gallery was floated in 1949, it was formally inaugurated by Vice-president Dr S. Radhakrishnan in 1954, in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru . Hermann Goetz (1898--1976), a noted German art historian became its first curator and in time it added new facilities such as Art restoration services, an Art reference Library and a Documentation Centre . </P> <P> Then in 2009, a new wing of the National Gallery of Modern Art was inaugurated adding almost six times the space to the existing gallery, plus it has a new auditorium, a preview theatre, conservation laboratory, library and academic section as well as a cafeteria and museum shop . </P>

National gallery of modern art in new delhi is in front of