While the Encampment style was founded in the late sixteenth century, most of what we know about it is from its eighteenth-century revival. This revival was engineered by Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne (1700–1774) in Eastern Tibet, whose artistic career is well documented in his autobiography and diaries.

Situ could paint in at least two different styles—Menri and the Encampment style—and was a keen observer of early masterpieces and different styles of painting. He was strongly motivated to cultivate, patronize, and preserve what remained of the Encampment style, the painting tradition of his own now-endangered religious school. Three paintings attributed by inscription to Situ Panchen’s own hand have been brought together for the first time in this exhibition.