Amrita Sher-Gil was an Indian painter, who pioneered the modern movement in Indian art. She was one of the most charismatic and promising Indian artists of the pre-colonial era. Most of her paintings reflect vividly her love for the country and more importantly her response to the life of its people.
Background
Ethnicity:
Her father was a Jat Sikh and her mother was of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry.
Amrita Sher-Gil was born on January 30, 1913 in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Budapest, Hungary). She was a daughter of Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, a Jat Sikh aristocrat and Sanskrit scholar, and Marie Antoniette Gottesmann, a Hungarian-Jewish opera singer, who came from an affluent bourgeois family. Amrita also had a younger sister, whose name was Indira (Sher-Gil) Sundaram.
Education
As a child, Amrita was expelled from her convent school for declaring herself an atheist. She started to learn the nuances of painting at the age of eight. Initially, she studied under Major Whitmarsh and later under Beven Pateman. Some time later, Amrita’s mother recognized her talents and took her to Italy in 1924, where Sher-Gil enrolled at Santa Annunziata, an art school in Florence. While at Santa Annunziata, Amrita was exposed to the works of Italian artists, which furthered her interest in painting. The same year, in 1924, after a few months of learning, she returned to India.
At the age of sixteen, Amrita left for Paris together with her mother. Initially, she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where Pierre Vaillent and Lucien Simon were her mentors. Since 1930 to 1934, Amrita studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. During her stay in Paris, she was greatly influenced by European painters like Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin.
During the initial stages of her career, Amrita’s works deeply reflected her Western influence and her technique was similar to the paintings, that were practiced in the Bohemian circles. While in France, she made a number of paintings, depicting her own life in Paris. In 1932, Amrita completed her work, entitled "Young Girls", which gained her wide recognition and appreciation.
In 1934, Amrita Sher-Gil returned to India and evolved her own distinct style which, according to her, was fundamentally Indian in subject, spirit and technical expression. In 1937, she traveled through South India, where she produced her South Indian trilogy of paintings "Bride's Toilet, Brahmacharis" and "South Indian Villagers Going to Market", that reveal her passionate sense of colour and an equally passionate empathy for her Indian subjects. By that time, the transformation in her work was complete and she had realized, that her "artistic mission" was to express the life of Indian people through her canvas.
In 1938, she returned to Hungary, where she married her cousin Victor Egan. The couple spent a year there and then moved back to India, settling in Saraya, a small village (present-day Uttar Pradesh), where Amrita’s uncle had an estate. Her works, which she produced after her wedding, had a tremendous impact on Indian art in the following years. Many of her works were influenced by those of Rabindranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore. During that phase of her life, Amrita produced many works, the best ones of which were "Siesta", "Village Scene" and "In the Ladies' Enclosure". All of them represented the poor state of the unprivileged people. Despite the fact, that her works were celebrated by critics, they seldom found buyers.
In September 1941, Amrita and Victor moved to Lahore (undivided India). There, she came up with marvelous paintings, such as "The Bride", "Tahitian", "Red Brick House" and "Hill Scene". The same year, in 1941, she was supposed to open her first major solo show in Lahore, when she mysteriously died, leaving the world shaken by her untimely death.
Although, Amrita came from a family, that was closely tied to the British Raj, she was an Indian National Congress (political party) sympathiser.
Views
Quotations:
"I can only paint in India. Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse and Braque. India belongs only to me."
"Although I studied, I have never been taught painting because I possess in my psychological make up a peculiarity that resents any outside interference."
"As soon as I put my foot on Indian soil, my painting underwent a change not only in subject and spirit but in technique."
Personality
Amrita Sher-Gil was a woman of free spirit, who led a pretty carefree life. She was also attracted by Gandhi's philosophy and lifestyle.
Connections
In 1938, Amrita married her Hungarian first cousin, Victor Egan. She went through at least two abortions prior to her wedding. During her lifetime, she also had affairs with both men and women, including her lover Marie Louise.