Introduction
Amrita was an eminent Indian painter born to a Punjabi Sikh father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, sometimes known as India's Frida Kahlo, and today considered an important woman painter of 20th century India, whose legacy stands at par with that of the Masters of Bengal Renaissance; she is also the 'most expensive' woman painter of India.
Born of a Sikh father from an aristocratic, land owing family, and a Hungarian mother, Amrita Sher-Gil’s life veered between Europe and India. She was blessed with beauty, breeding, charismatic personality and extra ordinary talent as a painter.
In 1929, she joined the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Her painting skills were recognized and acclaimed; she loved the bohemian life of artists in Paris. Sher-Gil’s painting style at this time reflected the European idiom with its naturalism and textured application of paint. Many of the paintings done in the early 1930s are in the European style, and include a number of self portraits. There are also many paintings of life in Paris, nude studies, still life studied, as well as portraits of friends and fellow students. Of these, the self portraits form a significant corpus. They captured the artist in her many moods- somber, pensive and joyous- while revealing a narcissistic streak in her personality.
Her style underwent a radical change by the mid- 30s. she yearn for India, and by 1934, the family returned. This time, she looked at India with the eyes of an artist. The colours, the textures, the vibrancy and the earthiness of the people had a deep impact on the young artist. In India, she appropriated the language of miniatures.
The complexities of her life- she was of mixed parentage and her art school background in Paris made her both, an insider and outsider, as did her ambivalent sexuality- promoted her to constantly reinvent her visual language. She sought to reconcile her modern sensibility with her enthusiastic response to traditional art-historical resources.
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. The Government of India has declared her works as National Art Treasures, and most of them are housed in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. A postage stamp depicting her painting 'Hill Women' was released in 1978 by India Post,and the Amrita Shergill Marg is a road in Lutyens' Delhi named after her. In 2006, her painting Village Scene sold for INR6.9 crores at an auction in New Delhi which was at the time the highest amount ever paid for a painting in India.
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.
Her work is a key theme in the contemporary Indian novel "Faking It" by Amrita Chowdhury. Aurora Zogoiby, a character in Salman Rushdie's 1995 novel "The Moor's Last Sigh," was inspired by Sher-Gil.
Colors And Style Of Amrita Shergill
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.
Three Girls:
Hill Women
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).
Nude Paintings by Amrita Shergill
Nude Paintings have always been considered a high point in an Artist’s painting career. Many artists all over the world do nude paintings and each one has a different interpretation of painting nudes. Amrita Shergill didn’t shun away from nude paintings. She loved life and lived life to the hilt and that transformed to her paintings.
Amrita Shergil began painting nudes in Paris. Her nude paintings focused on the plight of women who shed their clothes out of compulsions of all sorts. Her nude paintings showed humiliation and fear rather than seduction.
Some of the popular works that were painted earlier in her career were ‘The Professional Model’ and ‘The Torso’. The Professional Model was painted in 1933 and portrayed an ageing nude model. The painting shows the sadness and how neglected she feels which is depicted by stooped shoulders, sagging breasts, a tired head and a resentful face, but the glitter in her eyes is still alive. The painting’s style was very much influenced by Picasso’s style. She found this model very appealing and used her in two other paintings - "Study of Model in Green" and "A Study in Brown"
The Torso was a masterly study of a nude. The painting stood out for its skill of drawing and bold modeling.
Another popular nude painting of Amrita is the “Two Girls” where she portrays two young nude women, one pale with blue eyes and the brown skinned with dark hair. This work clearly shows the essence of the two worlds she has lived in.
Later on in her career, she moved on to doing nude self-portraits. These self portraits reflected her various emotions, her seductive nature, budding maturity and her struggles to deal with life.
Amrita Shergill was a bohemian right from her childhood days. Coming from an artistic background, she also had an inclination towards art right from her early days. She used to draw and sketch nudes during her school days. It was an untouchable subject during those times and she was reprimanded for it by the school nuns. However, this did not deter her from pursuing her interests in the field of art.
During her time, it was the Purdah age under the Muslim rule and painting nudes required a lot of courage. She was fearless and painted what her heart set out to do.
Amrita Shergill was a genius and had achieved a lot more than her fellow painters in the short span of life that she lived. Her nude paintings are raw and earthy and conform to the fact that a body in the nude is in its most beautiful state and is God’s most amazing creation. Her nude self portraits showed a lot of skill and spirit and are there for posterity. A nude painting is a creative form of expression and therefore a nude painting of a woman is the ultimate in terms of creativity. This is what Amrita Shergill achieved in her nude paintings.
Amrita was an eminent Indian painter born to a Punjabi Sikh father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, sometimes known as India's Frida Kahlo, and today considered an important woman painter of 20th century India, whose legacy stands at par with that of the Masters of Bengal Renaissance; she is also the 'most expensive' woman painter of India.
Born of a Sikh father from an aristocratic, land owing family, and a Hungarian mother, Amrita Sher-Gil’s life veered between Europe and India. She was blessed with beauty, breeding, charismatic personality and extra ordinary talent as a painter.
In 1929, she joined the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Her painting skills were recognized and acclaimed; she loved the bohemian life of artists in Paris. Sher-Gil’s painting style at this time reflected the European idiom with its naturalism and textured application of paint. Many of the paintings done in the early 1930s are in the European style, and include a number of self portraits. There are also many paintings of life in Paris, nude studies, still life studied, as well as portraits of friends and fellow students. Of these, the self portraits form a significant corpus. They captured the artist in her many moods- somber, pensive and joyous- while revealing a narcissistic streak in her personality.
Her style underwent a radical change by the mid- 30s. she yearn for India, and by 1934, the family returned. This time, she looked at India with the eyes of an artist. The colours, the textures, the vibrancy and the earthiness of the people had a deep impact on the young artist. In India, she appropriated the language of miniatures.
The complexities of her life- she was of mixed parentage and her art school background in Paris made her both, an insider and outsider, as did her ambivalent sexuality- promoted her to constantly reinvent her visual language. She sought to reconcile her modern sensibility with her enthusiastic response to traditional art-historical resources.
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. The Government of India has declared her works as National Art Treasures, and most of them are housed in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. A postage stamp depicting her painting 'Hill Women' was released in 1978 by India Post,and the Amrita Shergill Marg is a road in Lutyens' Delhi named after her. In 2006, her painting Village Scene sold for INR6.9 crores at an auction in New Delhi which was at the time the highest amount ever paid for a painting in India.
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.
Her work is a key theme in the contemporary Indian novel "Faking It" by Amrita Chowdhury. Aurora Zogoiby, a character in Salman Rushdie's 1995 novel "The Moor's Last Sigh," was inspired by Sher-Gil.
Colors And Style Of Amrita Shergill
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.
Three Girls:
 |
| Three_Girls,_by_Amrita_Sher-Gil,_1935 |
 |
| Hill Women, 1935 |
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).
 |
| Woman at Bath |
Nude Paintings by Amrita Shergill
 |
| Sleeping woman, 1933 |
Nude Paintings have always been considered a high point in an Artist’s painting career. Many artists all over the world do nude paintings and each one has a different interpretation of painting nudes. Amrita Shergill didn’t shun away from nude paintings. She loved life and lived life to the hilt and that transformed to her paintings.
Amrita Shergil began painting nudes in Paris. Her nude paintings focused on the plight of women who shed their clothes out of compulsions of all sorts. Her nude paintings showed humiliation and fear rather than seduction.
Some of the popular works that were painted earlier in her career were ‘The Professional Model’ and ‘The Torso’. The Professional Model was painted in 1933 and portrayed an ageing nude model. The painting shows the sadness and how neglected she feels which is depicted by stooped shoulders, sagging breasts, a tired head and a resentful face, but the glitter in her eyes is still alive. The painting’s style was very much influenced by Picasso’s style. She found this model very appealing and used her in two other paintings - "Study of Model in Green" and "A Study in Brown"
The Torso was a masterly study of a nude. The painting stood out for its skill of drawing and bold modeling.
 |
| The Torso |
Another popular nude painting of Amrita is the “Two Girls” where she portrays two young nude women, one pale with blue eyes and the brown skinned with dark hair. This work clearly shows the essence of the two worlds she has lived in.
Later on in her career, she moved on to doing nude self-portraits. These self portraits reflected her various emotions, her seductive nature, budding maturity and her struggles to deal with life.
 |
| Self-Portrait |
 |
| Self Portrait as Tahitian, 1934 |
Amrita Shergill was a bohemian right from her childhood days. Coming from an artistic background, she also had an inclination towards art right from her early days. She used to draw and sketch nudes during her school days. It was an untouchable subject during those times and she was reprimanded for it by the school nuns. However, this did not deter her from pursuing her interests in the field of art.
During her time, it was the Purdah age under the Muslim rule and painting nudes required a lot of courage. She was fearless and painted what her heart set out to do.
Amrita Shergill was a genius and had achieved a lot more than her fellow painters in the short span of life that she lived. Her nude paintings are raw and earthy and conform to the fact that a body in the nude is in its most beautiful state and is God’s most amazing creation. Her nude self portraits showed a lot of skill and spirit and are there for posterity. A nude painting is a creative form of expression and therefore a nude painting of a woman is the ultimate in terms of creativity. This is what Amrita Shergill achieved in her nude paintings.
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.
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