India belongs only to me - Amrita Sher-Gill

She had a longing to return to India feeling in some strange way that there lay her destiny as a painter. As a young girl, she would paint the servants in her house. These memories would eventually lead to her return to India. Her work was greatly influenced by Mughal and Pahari schools of paintings and the cave paintings at Ajanta.

‘Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse and many others. India belongs only to me! I can only paint in India. ’ she once said.

Amrita Sher-Gill [1913 – 1941] started to draw and paint by herself at the age of 5 with formal lessons from the age of 8. She gained International recognition at the age of 19. She is one of the greatest women artists of the early 20th century and a pioneer in modern Indian art. She was also an avid reader and a pianist.

She traveled widely, deriving heavily from different art styles and cultures. Her paintings were the perfect blend of Western and Indian techniques which gave them an exotic appeal.

Amrita Studied at an art school at Florence and was exposed to works of Italian masters. She also trained at some of the most prestigious art schools at Paris,. She drew inspiration from Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. She is said to have painted with a conviction and maturity rarely seen in a 16-year old.

Her 1932 oil painting, Young Girls, came as a breakthrough for her at the age of 19. It won her accolades, including a gold medal and election as an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris in 1933. She was the youngest ever member and the only Asian to have received this recognition. Her works include a number of self-portraits, as well as life in Paris, nude studies, still life studied, and portraits of friends and fellow students.

Sher-Gill produced her South Indian trilogy of paintings Bride's Toilet, Brahmacharis, and South Indian Villagers Going to Market following her visit to the Ajanta caves. These paintings reveal her sense of colour and an empathy for Indian subjects, who are often depicted in their poverty and despair. Her 'artistic mission' was, to express the life of Indian people through her canvas.

Some of her more notable works include the Village Scene, In the Ladies' Enclosure ,Siesta, Two Women ,Tahitian , Red Brick House, Hill Scene , and The Bride.

The Government of India declared her works as National Art Treasures, and most of them are in the NGMA in New Delhi. A postage stamp depicting her painting 'Hill Women' was released in 1978 by India Post.

Her work is deemed to be so important to Indian culture that the Indian government has stipulated that the art must stay in the country – fewer than ten of her works have been sold globally.

UNESCO announced in 2013, her 100th birth anniversary, to be the international year of Amrita Sher-Gill.

Though she lived for just 28 short years, she left an indelible mark on the history of contemporary Indian art.

------

Published in Colour Canvas issue of July 2018