Amrita Sher-Gil
Amrita Sher-Gil (30 January 1913,[1] – 5 December 1941),
was an eminent Indian painter born
to a Punjabi Sikh father and
a Hungarian mother, sometimes
known as India's Frida Kahlo,[2] and today considered
an important woman painter of 20th century India, whose legacy stands at par
with that of the Masters of Bengal Renaissance;[3][4] she is also the 'most
expensive' woman painter of India.[5]
Early life and education[edit]
Amrita with
her sister Indira, 1922
Amrita Sher-Gil was born in Budapest, Hungary[6] to Umrao Singh
Sher-Gil Majithia, a Sikh aristocrat and a
scholar inSanskrit and Persian, and
Marie Antoniette Gottesmann, aJewish opera
singer from Hungary. Her
mother came to India as a companion of Princess
Bamba Sutherland.[7][8]Sher-Gil
was the elder of two daughters born. Her younger sister was Indira Sundaram
(née Sher-Gil), mother of the contemporary artist Vivan
Sundaram. She spent most of early childhood in Budapest. She was the
niece of Indologist Ervin Baktay. He
guided her by critiquing her work and gave her an academic foundation to grow
on. He also instructed her to use servants as models. The memories of these
models would eventually lead to her return to India.[9]
In 1921 her family moved to Summer Hill, Shimla in India, and soon
began learning piano and violin, and by age in nine she along with her younger
sister Indira were giving concerts and acting in plays at Shimla's Gaiety
Theatre at Mall Road, Shimla.[10] Though she was already
painting since the age of five she formally started learning painting at age
eight.[10]
In 1923, Marie came to know an Italian sculptor, who was
living at Shimla at the time and in 1924 when he returned to Italy, she too moved to Italy along with
Amrita and got her enrolled at Santa Annunziata, an art school at Florence. Though
Amrita didn't stay at this school for long, and returned to India in 1924, it
was here that she was exposed to works of Italian masters.[11]
At sixteen, Sher-Gil sailed to Europe
with her mother to train as a painter at Paris, first at
the Grande Chaumiere under Pierre Vaillant
and later at École des Beaux-Arts (1930–34),[12][13] she drew inspiration
from European painters such as Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin,[14] while coming under
the influence of her teacher Lucien Simon and the company of
artist friends and lovers like Boris Tazlitsky. Her early paintings
display a significant influence of the Western modes of painting,
especially as practiced in the Bohemian circles of Paris in the early 1930s. In
1932, she made her first important work, Young
Girls, which led to her election as an Associate of the Grand Salon in
Paris in 1933, making her the youngest ever[15][16] and the only Asian to
have received this recognition.[11]
Career[edit]
In 1934, while in Europe she
"began to be haunted by an intense longing to return to India [...]
feeling in some strange way that there lay my destiny as a painter", as
she later wrote about her return to India the same year.[17] She began a quest for
the rediscovery of the traditions of Indian art which was to continue till her
death. It was also during this period that she pursued an affair with Malcolm Muggeridge.[18] She stayed at their
family home at Summer Hill, Shimla, for a
while, before leaving for travel, in 1936, at the behest of an art collector
and critic, Karl Khandalavala, who encouraged her to pursue her passion for
discovering her Indian roots.[14] She was greatly
impressed and influenced by the Mughal and Pahari schools of painting and the cave
paintings at Ajanta.
Later in 1937, she toured South India[14] and produced the
famous South Indian trilogy of paintings - Bride's
Toilet, Brahmacharis and The
South Indian Villagers that
reveal her passionate sense of colour and an equally passionate empathy for her
Indian subjects, who are often depicted in their poverty and despair.[19] By now the
transformation in her work was complete and she had found her 'artistic
mission' which was, according to her, to express the life of Indian people
through her canvas.[1] While in Saraya
Sher-Gil wrote to a friend thus: “I can only paint in India. Europe belongs to
Picasso, Matisse, Braque.... India belongs only to me”.[20] Her stay in India
marks the beginning of a new phase in her artistic development, one that was
distinct from European phase of the interwar years when her work showed an
engagement with the works of Hungarian painters,
especially the Nagybanya school of painting.[21]
Sher-Gil married her Hungarian first
cousin, Dr. Victor Egan in 1938 and moved with him to India to stay at her
paternal family's home in Saraya in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Thus
began her second phase of painting which equals in its impact on Indian art
with the likes of Rabindranath Tagore and Jamini Roy of the Bengal school of art. The
'Calcutta Group' of artists, which transformed the Indian art scene in a big
way, was to start only in 1943, and the 'Progressive Artist's Group', with Francis Newton Souza, Ara, Bakre,
Gade, M. F. Husain and S. H. Razaamong its
founders, lay further ahead in 1948.[2][22][23] Amrita's art was
strongly influenced by the paintings of the two Tagores, Rabindranath and Abanindranath who were the pioneers of the Bengal
School of painting. Her portraits of women resemble works by Rabindranath while
the use of chiaroscuro and bright colours reflect the influence of
Abanindranath.[24]
It was during her stay at Saraya that
she painted the Village Scene, In the Ladies' Enclosure and Siesta all of which portray the leisurely
rhythms of life in rural India. Siesta and In
the Ladies' Enclosure reflect
her experimentation with the miniature school of
painting while Village Scene reflects influences of the Pahari school
of painting.[25] Although acclaimed by
art critics Karl Khandalavala in Bombay and Charles Fabri in Lahore as the
greatest painter of the century, Amrita's paintings found few buyers. She
travelled across India with her paintings but the Nawab Salar Jung of Hyderabad returned them and the Maharaja of Mysore chose Ravi Varma'spaintings
over hers.[26]
Although from a family that was
closely tied to the British Raj, Amrita
herself was a Congress sympathiser. She was
attracted to the poor, distressed and the deprived and her paintings of Indian
villagers and women are a meditative reflection of their condition. She was
also attracted by Gandhi's philosophy and lifestyle. Nehru was charmed by her
beauty and talent and when he went to Gorakhpur in October 1940, he visited her
at Saraya. Her paintings were at one stage even considered for use in the
Congress propaganda for village reconstruction.[20]
In September 1941, Victor and Amrita
moved to Lahore, then in undivided India and a major cultural
and artistic centre. She lived and painted at 23 Ganga Ram Mansions, The Mall,
Lahore where her studio was on the top floor of the townhouse she inhabited.
Amrita was known for her many affairs with both men and women[17] and many of the latter she also
painted. Her work Two Women is thought to be a painting of herself
and her lover Marie Louise.[27]
In 1941, just days before the opening
of her first major solo show in Lahore, she became seriously ill and slipped
into a coma,[17] and later died around midnight[19] on 6 December 1941,
leaving behind a large volume of work, and the real reason for her death has
never been ascertained. A failed abortion and subsequent peritonitis have been
suggested as possible causes for her death.[28] Her mother accused
her doctor husband Victor of having murdered her. The day after her death
England declared war on Hungary and Victor was sent to jail as an enemy
national. Amrita was cremated on 7 December 1941 at Lahore.[26]
Legacy[edit]
Sher-Gil's art has influenced
generations of Indian artists from Sayed Haider Raza to Arpita Singh and her depiction of the plight of
women has made her art a beacon for women at large both in India and abroad.[29] The Government of India has declared her
works as National Art Treasures,[2] and most of them are
housed in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.[30] A postage stamp
depicting her painting 'Hill Women' was released in 1978 by India Post,[31] and the Amrita Shergill Marg is a road
in Lutyens'
Delhinamed after her. In 2006, her painting Village Scene sold for
6.9
crores at an auction in New Delhi which was at the time
the highest amount ever paid for a painting in India.[25]
Besides remaining an inspiration to
many a contemporary Indian artists, in 1993, she also became the inspiration
behind, the famous Urdu play, by Javed Siddiqi, Tumhari
Amrita (1992),
starring Shabana Azmi and Farooq Shaikh.[32]
Daughter of a Sikh
aristocrat, the beautiful Amrita SherGil (1913– 41), sailed with her Hungarian
mother toFrance to study art in Paris when she was only sixteen year old. She
learnt first at the Grande Chaumiere under Pierre Vaillant and subsequently at
the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where she was taught by Lucien Simon.
Sher-Gil returned to
India at the end of 1934, not yet twenty-two, but already a technically
accomplished painter, equipped with some of the most essential ingredients that
make an artist great – an unquenchable thirst to know,
a virile tenacity of purpose and a single-mindednesss about her role in life.
Sher-Gil sought to come to terms with her Indian heritge – being only half
Indian, she must have known that she would never have an insider’s view of
India or be able to claim a full share of its psyche.
While still a student in Paris, she wrote in a letter how she ‘began to be haunted by an intense longing to return to India, feeling in some strange way that there lay my destiny as a painter’. This was a remarkable statement for a twenty-year-old half-Indian woman, however westernized, to make in 1933. In those days, women of her background did not have vocations or careers; only lower-working-class women had jobs, and they were menial. Few Indian girls had an advanced education of any nature and those who did never took up a profession or employment, let alone declared their independence in such an unusual way as by becoming an artist. By her age, most women had been relegated to wedlock through the normal channel of an arranged marriage, and many had borne a couple of children. A casual remark by one of her Beaux-Arts tutors about her palette being more suitable for the colours and light of the East – as has been suggested by her nephew, the artist Vivan Sundaram – was all that it took to impel the impressionable girl, barely out of her teens, to long to hasten ‘home’.
Sher-Gil’s statement
was a powerful indication of her intent, revealing the passion and the fire
behind it. And, upon her return to India late the following year, she lost no
time in getting to grips with her ambition. In Paris she may have been thirty
years behind the European art movements and current trends, as hinted at by
Sundaram, but she was certainly as many years ahead of her time in India in the
mid-1930s – only in the 1960s did Indian artists begin to display her kind of
self-assurance and purpose.
She went to live in
Simla, the fashionable summer capital of the Raj in the Himalayan foothills,
where her liberated lifestyle caused a stir. She began painting poor hill
people who, to her romantic and naïve mind, embodies the spirit of India. She
gave them large doleful eyes and vacant stares, exuding an expression of utter
hopelessness. Her lanky and angular figures shrouded in homespun materials look
fragile and melancholic, reflecting, perhaps, an inner melancholy of her own.
The freshness and originality of Ajanta and Ellora, the sensuous murals of the
Mattancheri Palace in Cochin and the strength of the Kushan sculpture which she
saw at Mathura, began to characterize her work. She became acquainted with
Indian miniatures and fell in love with the intense Basohli school. She even
attempted to include certain elements of Rajput painting in her later work,
doing so with feeling and flair and avoiding Abanindranath’s sentimentality.
Sher-Gil
has been accused of neither having any political awareness, nor identifying
with the national struggle for independence which was entering its final phase
during her last years. What, perhaps, she did not know was that she would not
live long enough to see how soon these strengths would rejuvenate Indian art.
Achivement
The name ‘Amrita Shergill’ stands out prominently
amongst the modern painters of India. She was the youngest and only Asian
artist to be elected as an Associate of the Grand Salon, Paris. She was the
'most expensive' Indian woman painter as well. Amrita is sometimes also known as
India’s Frida Kahlo. She was very much influenced by the impressionists. She
altered the face of Asian art and set a course for women artists. Her works
echo the beauty and brilliance she possessed. In the following account, you
will find the achievements of Amrita Shergill painted in various shades.
Early Life of Amrita
Shergill
Amrita Shergill was born in Budapest, Hungary on 30th
January, 1913 to Umrao Singh Shergill Majithia, a Sikh aristocrat and a
Sanskrit and Persian scholar and Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, a Jewish Opera
singer from Hungary. As her life unfolds, we come to know that she spent most
of early childhood in Budapest. She was the niece of Indologist Ervin Baktay.
He guided her and gave her an academic foundation to develop on.
Education of Amrita
Shergill
In 1921, her family shifted from Hungary to Shimla.
There Amrita developed an interest in the art of painting. Thus, she took
tuitions from an Italian sculptor in Shimla. When in 1924, her teacher moved
back to Italy, Amrita and her mother also followed him. In Italy, she joined
Santa Anunciata, a Roman Catholic institute.
Amrita Shergil received exposure there to the works of
the Italian masters, which furthered fanned her interest in painting. She
received formal training of painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris,
under Lucien Simon. At that time, she was deeply influenced by some European
painters. Her paintings mirror a strong influence of the Western modes of
painting.
Career of Amrita Shergill
Amrita Shergil returned to India in 1934 and since
then, began her never-ending journey in the field of Indian art traditions. In
India Mughal miniatures schools and Ajanta paintings had a great impact on her.
When she journeyed to the southern parts of India, the famous South-Indian trilogy
paintings came into being by her brush and paint. She evolved her own
distinctive style. According to her, it was basically Indian in spirit,
subject, and technical articulacy. Now, her paintings took the villagers, the
poor and beggars as subjects.
Famous Paintings by
Amrita Shergill
Amrita Shergill’s gangling and sharp figures of the
poor are cloaked in homespun materials. They look flimsy and forlorn. Perhaps,
reflecting her inner glum. The originality and uniqueness of Ajanta and Ellora,
the sumptuous murals at the Mattancheri Palace in Cochin and the power of the
Kushan sculpture she saw at Mathura, portray her work. She became familiar with
Indian miniatures and adored the passionate Basohli School. She attempted to
embrace some elements of Rajput painting in her later works, with feeling and
flamboyance.
One of her early paintings ‘The Torso’ was a skillful
study of an undressed which was known for its intelligence of drawing and bold
modeling. Amrita completed ‘Young Girls’ in 1933. During her time, India was
just coming out of the Purdah age, obligatory during the Muslim rule. So, great
courage was required to paint nudes and this she did boldly and beautifully.
She was a non-conformist. She painted herself gracefully in the nude. These
paintings are today’s art treasures. In the negotiation, she blazed a radical
trail which has served as a guiding light to other Indian painters.
It is said that she didn’t identify with the national
struggle for independence. The reason can be perhaps, she didn’t know that she
would not live long enough to witness how soon that power would revivify Indian
art.
Awards, Achievements and
Legacy
Amrita Shergill was amongst the most gifted Indian
artists of the pre-colonial era. Her works reproduce her unfathomable passion
and sense for colors. Her profound understanding of the Indian subjects can
also be seen in her paintings.
The Government of India declared her illustrious works
as National Art Treasures. The National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi is
adorned by a majority of Amrita’s paintings. Also, there is a road known as the
Amrita Shergill Marg in Lutyen's Delhi.
A postage stamp was released in 1978 in India which
depicted her painting 'Hill Women'. She inspired a number of contemporary
Indian artists. It was in the year 1993 that a renowned Urdu play ‘Tumhari
Amrita’ (1992) by Javed Siddiqi came into being. Her work is the main theme in
the contemporary Indian novel ‘Faking It’ by Amrita Chowdhury.
Amrita Shergill’s life was filled with passion and
color just like her canvasses. She lived life on her own terms, with
exceptional ways. In 1938 Amrita married her Hungarian first cousin, Dr. Victor
Egan. With him, she moved to her paternal family's home in Gorakhpur, Uttar
Pradesh. Later, the couple shifted to Lahore. Prior to her untimely demise, she
left behind a body of work that establishes her amongst the leading artists of
the century and a wonderfully eloquent symbol of synthesis between the East and
the West. Amrita Shergil left this world on December 6, 1941 but achievements
of Amrita Shergill are eternal, splendid and intense. They are keeping her
alive amongst us.
Colour Style- Amrita’s initial works reflected the
academic style in which she was taught. But later, she started experimenting
and tried representing the non-western body in her paintings. Her paintings had
a lot of Gauguin’s influence. Most of her paintings reflected the rural side of
India. She used an abstract style along with vivid colors influenced by
European modernism to depict rural India. Her paintings showed tangible
proximity of the figures in her paintings and extensive use of dark tones for
the background.
When Amrita Shergill returned to India in 1934, she
went on a never-ending journey to study and learn the traditions of Indian Art.
She got majorly influenced by the Mughal art works and the Ajanta paintings.
Her journey to South India led her to paint her famous South Indian trilogy -
Brides toilette, Brahmacharis and the South Indian Villagers going to market.
Apart from the Ajanta style, Amrita was also
fascinated by the Paharari, Mughal and Rajasthani styles. The miniature Mughal,
Pahari and Rajasthani paintings of the medieval era were an artistic revelation
for Amrita Shergill. In the Village Scene you can see her fascination of Pahari
miniatures. In the painting, she portrays a group of village women who are
engaged in daily chores such as, chatting with each other and nurturing their
children. At one corner there is a basket of red chillis and a red sari on the
other end. The women are covered in saris and their faces are in shadow, but
each of the women’s body language is distinct. The painting shows a mix of both
foreign and Indian artistic traditions. She always portrayed women in her
paintings as individuals in their own right, vulnerable but at the same time
strong and dignified. She loved painting women of rural India and their
activities. Often in her paintings, you can find the confined lives of rural
Indian women with jaded eyes and gloomy faces.
Amrita’s paintings showed her typical fascination for
the color red and white. The color scheme she uses in her paintings is vibrant,
vivid, intense and glowing. In many of her paintings, one thing was prominent -
an exception use of whites. According to her, the use of white would
effectively liven up a painting and would illuminate the entire canvas. The use
of whites in her compositions just adds a lot of drama.
In three Girls, Hill Men and Hill Women, the depiction
seems almost impersonal because she does not approach her subject in a
narrative manner that would focus on a particular event, but she rather brings
a scene come to life. The figures portrayed in her paintings, were slightly
superimposed and are posed statically and silently, almost icon-like. The
figures in her paintings render a meaningful moment.
After her southern expedition, her paintings became
more grounded with everyday realities. Her later paintings were not overly
romanticized or characterized by majestic poses, but were more relaxed and
distant. Some examples are - The Swing, Woman at Bath and Woman Resting on
Charpoy (all from 1940).
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