Tag Archives: Indian Women Painters

Culture, Painting and Sculpture

Amrita Sher-Gil

The Life of Amrita Sher-Gil

Amrita Sher-Gil is a female pioneer of modern Indian art in what was formerly a male dominion (Sivan G 108). With a talent for hybridity in art, she incorporated Western techniques and visuals as well as Eastern. Her personality was one of confidence, blunt, and comfortable promiscuity between men and allegedly women (Dalmia 33, 38: Mzezewa 2018, np); likewise, her paintings portrayed women as strong and powerful while capturing the “neglected” areas of a woman’s life (Sharma, Jha, & Gupta 254). She showed early signs of rejection of the patriarchy that would reflect in her life and her works. Sher-Gil was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Sikh philosopher father named Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, and an equally talented Hungarian mother named Marie Antoniette Gottesmann on January 30th, 1913 (“Cultural India”). According to Dalmia, Amrita was baptized in 1918 as a Roman Catholic and she was partly Jewish (11).

At the outbreak of World War One, the Sher-Gil family moved to Dunaharaszti in 1916. During this period of four years in the village life, Amrita showed interest in coloured crayons to copy toys around her and drew folk songs that her mother would sing to her (Dalmia 14: Sivan G 107). After moving back to Budapest briefly, political instability arose, and the family moved back to India in 1921. Despite her unfamiliarity with formal education, Amrita was enrolled in Santa Annuciata School in Florence, Italy in January 1924. Amrita rebelled against the Roman Catholic regime of the school with a nude portrait and withdrew, but was enrolled into another Catholic school in Simla, India to which she rebelled again (Dalmia 19-20). The Sher-Gil family stayed in India from June 1924 to April 1929.

In 1927, Amrita’s uncle Ervin Baktay encouraged her to move to Paris to develop her artistic skill as well as paint from live models (Dalmia 23-25). While in Paris between the period of 1930-1932, Amrita created over sixty paintings which were mostly of self-portraits and young women (Dalmia 31). Amrita attended the Ecole des Beaux Art from 1929-1934, which is associated with her interest in line and colour (Tillotson 59). In these Paris years, Amrita’s self portraits began to show a change in her personality as she became more confident. This is when she appears to have grown to become her own vivacious person, as well as becoming comfortable in her own sexuality. She began to long for India after five years of gaining new techniques in Paris, and subsequently left in 1934 for her ancestral home in Amritsar.

While back in India, she left behind her Western clothes and vowed to wear saris for the rest of her life (Dalmia 59). Her painting palette began to switch and contain recurring ideas since being in India. It is there in Simla where Amrita starts to depict the poverty in India. She moved to her family’s estate in 1936, but then began a tour of South India with Barada Ukil in which she visited the Ajanta and Ellora caves. (Dalmia 79). These cave paintings inspired some of her work in the future and seemed to have awoken something in her. The winning of the gold medal at the annual exhibition of the Bombay Art Society on January 15th, 1937 occurred when she was touring South India (Shakeel 9). This was also when she began to be noticed.

After travelling to two major temple complexes in India, Amrita was influenced by the religious life. In Trivandrum, she found inspiration in the colours of life. The Indian prince (maharaja) and the Prince’s wife (maharani) in Trivandrum sent for, then refused to buy Amrita’s paintings because they were not within the norm. Her artistic style never was within the norm, as she painted troubled women with expressions of oppression (Mzezewa 2018, np). She then ventured to Cape Comorin, where she stayed for eleven days, and incorporated her South Indian experiences into her paintings. After a visit to the Cochin frescoes, Allahabad, and Dehli, she returned to Simla and “regurgitated” her memories into paintings (Dalmia 86). In the year 1937, Amrita created what became known as the south Indian trilogy; hence Bride’s Toilet, Brahmacharis, and South Indian Villagers Going to the Market were created to encapsulate the exposure to form and colour Amrita saw in south India (Dalmia 91: Sivan G 117).

Amrita had become increasingly popular with a unique and identifiable style, and yet she felt as though people were misunderstanding her paintings. Her paintings were praised for showing Indian poverty with sympathy, but criticized for showing the countries’ bad side, or even aestheticizing the poor (Tillotson 68). Amrita’s sister Indira Sher-Gil got married in 1937, which caused Amrita’s paintings to stop as the house became engulfed in turmoil (Dalmia 99). Amrita ventured to Lahore for an art exhibition, where she met an important art critic whom she became close with, Dr. Charles Fabri. He, along with others, provided her with truth and criticism to improve her style.

After making two paintings in Lahore and feeling regenerated from the trip, she returned to her family estates and married her cousin Victor Egan. Her parents disapproved, but that seemed to make her more determined (Dalmia 108). Before Amrita and Victor were to be married in Budapest, Amrita got pregnant. Victor arranged for an abortion, which was carried out soon after. Amrita’s parents continued to be hostile and reluctant to the two, but Amrita and Victor persisted. The two made agreements in their marriage to not have children, to have a quiet wedding, and that Amrita was also allowed to see other men (Dalmia 112-114). Victor was called out to Kiskunhalas for military duty and sent for Amrita to come live with him, which she did. She also went with him when he moved to Lake Balaton, and then they moved back to Kiskunhalas where Amrita took to painting again.

With the rising of more political instability, Victor and Amrita left Hungary in June 1939 to Genoa and boarded a ship to Colombo. The couple finally reached Simla to live with Amrita’s parents, but her mother was extremely hostile to the couple. The couple were relieved when Amrita’s cousin Kirpal Singh Majithi invited them to live with him in Saraya but were unsatisfied in finding inspiration or work (Dalmia 122). Victor finally attempted to settle things with Amrita’s mother in 1940 after her relentless hostility to him, but to no avail. It was as if the turning point in Amrita’s relationship with her mother also made a turning point in Amrita. After a period of depression, Amrita’s spirits were lifted again. She now began to link form with context in her paintings with the help of the Mughals, who were Muslims who ruled over a large Hindu majority country. Amrita and Victor visited Sonepur Mela in Bihar and Amrita took to painting elephants, which began another turn to other life in Amrita’s paintings (Dalmia 138). And yet, Amrita began to feel herself become sad again even while practicing new art techniques like sculpturing. Amrita hit an artist’s block before her friend, Karl Khandalavala, came to visit but became stuck again when he left. She is said to have felt defeated and depressed, as though her artistic muse had gone. Things were not going good for either Amrita or Victor, so they set out to Lahore in 1941. Victor then moved back to Saraya, and Amrita moved from Lahore to Simla to find her sister Indira and her husband had taken up her art studio. After a fight with Indira over Amrita always being “in the limelight,” Amrita left without a single bag to her old friend Helen’s house (Dalmia 157).

            By now, Amrita was a recognized original painter. Amrita left Simla in August 1941 for Saraya with Victor, then left again to Lahore in September. The couple found a place and Amrita enjoyed life again as the two met and congregated with intellectuals and artists. Finally comfortable, Amrita scheduled an exhibition in December of 1941. Amrita began to work on her final painting that depicted animal forms and the Indian landscape, though it was never finished. Two weeks before her exhibition, Amrita fell ill. Amrita had been sick with the Spanish flu, acute tonsillitis, and a sexual illness, but this was different (Dalmia 13, 35, 80). She died on December 5th at midnight from peritonitis after being visited by three doctors, one of which was her husband. She was only 28, leaving her “artistic voyage… unfinished” (Dalmia 173: Sharma, Jha, & Gupta 254). Her family decided to have a Sikh funeral for her on December 7th, 1941 and her body was cremated on the bank of the river Ravi (Shakeel 15). In her wake, many of her friends and family thought of her as she remained immortal in her works. There are allegations that she passed because of food poisoning, her husband not having enough knowledge to treat her, or a failed abortion (Dalmia 179-180: Mzezewa 2018, np).

            The life on Amrita Sher-Gil can be described as incredibly ambitious, bold, and always changing. Her life was reflected in her art in that it was always shifting, whether leaning more to her European techniques, or to her Indian ideas. Amrita is described as having a “ferocity of mind and sharpness of tongue, combined with an unashamed openness about her own behaviour” (Zaman 2020, np). Her paintings portrayed early ideas of feminism in that it showed overshadowed women, and people who were oppressed. Her comfortability in her sexuality was also a bold notion in her time, and yet she was blunt and open. Some say it is narcissism, some say confidence. Overall, as said by Sivan G, Amrita was a significant, “volatile personality amongst the artists of colonial India” who shaped modern Indian art with her European and Eastern hybridity (106).

REFERENCES AND FURTHER RECOMMENDED READING

Britannica Academic (2013) “Amrita Sher-Gil.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://academic-eb-com.ezproxy.uleth.ca/levels/collegiate/article/Amrita-Sher-Gil/599290#

Cultural India (2020) Amrita Sher-Gil: Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https:/www.culturalindia.net/Indian-art

Dalmia, Yashodhara (2006) Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life. New York: Penguin.

G., Sivan (2014) “Mimesis and Beyond a Major Philosophical Trend in Modern Indian Painting.” Shodhganga: Reservoir of Indian Theses: 103-129. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10603/80281

Mzezewa, Tariro (2018) Overlooked No More: Amrita Sher-Gil, a Pioneer of Indian Art. New York Times. No page numbers available.

Shakeel, Talat (1998) “Amrita Shergil and Bengal School of Painting.” Shodhganga: Reservoir of Indian Theses, pp. 1-113. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10603/110780

Sharma, Mandakini, Jha, Pashupati, and Gupta, Ila (2016) “Amrita Sher-Gill’s Paintings: A Cultural Evaluation.” THAAP Journal 2016: 254-265.

Tillotson, G.H.R (1997) “A Painter of Concern: Critical Writings on Amrita Sher-Gil.” India International Centre, Vol. 24, No. 4: 57-72. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/23002294

Zaman, Sahar (2020) Amrita Sher-Gil: A Heroine of Two Nations. The Quint. Retrieved from https://www.thequint.com/lifestyle/amrita-sher-gil-a-heroine-of-two-nations-artist-india-pakistan-self-portrait-freedom-struggle-oil-paintings-canvas. No page numbers available.

Related Topics for Further Investigation

Ajanta Caves

Bengal Renaissance

Bombay Art Society

Brahmacharis

Bride’s Toilet

Cochin Frescoes

Ecole des Beaux Art School

Ellora Caves

Cultural Hybridity

Maharaja

Maharani

Marie Antoniette Gottesmann

Modern Indian Art

Santa Annuciata School

Sikh tradition

Three Girls

Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia

Victor Egan

Noteworthy Websites Related to the Topic

http://amrita-sher-gil.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrita_Sher-Gil

Amrita Sher-Gil: All that influences

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/emit/hd_emit.htm

https://www.thequint.com/neon/amrita-shergil-art-paintings-life-portrait-of-an-artist-as-a-young-woman

https://www.wikiart.org/en/amrita-sher-gil

Article written by: Allison Vonk (February 2020) who claims authorship of this content.

Assorted Aspects of Hindu Culture, Painting and Sculpture

Amrita Sher-Gil

Amrita Sher-Gil was born on January 30th, 1913 in Budapest, Hungary. Her father, Sardar Umrao Singh Majithia was an owner of a large amount of land that had been granted to him by the British. Originally, he was a member of the well known Majithia clan that was fighting against the British with the Sikhs, however, he switched sides and helped the British win the war. As a thanks for his contributions he was then given land and became an even wealthier, prominent member of society. His brother, Sir Sunder Singh Majithia, turned a large portion of the land into sugar factories that continued to help the family’s wealth grow (Singh 1975).  

Sher-Gil’s mother also came from a wealthy, upper class family. Marie Antoinette Gottesmann was a well known musician and opera singer though she never became a professional. She was known for her love of entertaining and keen eye for decorating. Marie was raised with a very good education (Dalmia 2006) and is the one responsible for the Roman Catholic baptism of both of her daughters, despite Catholicism not being a theology that she practiced directly or insisted on her children practicing. Chrisitianity, specifically Catholicism was something to which both girls were exposed. Amrita attended and was expelled from two Catholic schools as a child (Singh 1975).

The first eight years of Amrita’s life were spent in Hungary until the family moved to India in 1921. The family specifically rooted in Simla where Amrita and her sister began the first parts of their education (Singh 210). Sher-Gil took up a passion for drawing and quickly began an education focused on art and the expansion of her talents. The first teacher she had, Major Whitmarsh, was known to be very conventional and made Amrita draw the same things over and over until she was able to do them as realistically as possible. Major Whitmarsh was dismissed shortly after he started as Sher-Gil strongly disliked listening to him and his teaching style (Singh 211). Her second teacher, Hal Bevan Petman, maintained his position for a considerable time frame and even recommended a formal European style education in art for Amrita, claiming she had a great promise as an artist. In 1924 the family moved again to Florence, Italy, where Sher-Gil was able to study art and go to school at the School of Santa Annunciate. Unfortunately, she was expelled in less than six months as she was caught drawing nude women in class, which was against the strict orthodox rules (Singh 211). 

After the school in Florence did not work out, the family moved back to Simla, India, and Amrita began to develop the relationships that would later become so crucial for her work as many of these individuals became her models. The majority of the models from her later and most famous paintings came from the hills surrounding the Simla area, known as Saraya (Singh 211). Of course, Amrita had to continue in a formal education so she was once again enrolled in a Catholic School and was once again expelled thanks to a letter she wrote to her father that was intercepted by one of the teachers. She was writing to explain to him that she was denouncing all religions as she thought they were pointless and stifling, which was not well received by the religious staff at the school (Singh 211). 

It was not until Amrita’s uncle, Ervin Baktay, started taking an interest in her talent that her parents considered Paris as an option for a formal art based education. He was able to inspire her to focus on incorporating things from the real world in her paintings and cultivated an interest in autonomy in Sher-Gil and her work. In 1929 the family moved, yet again, to Paris for Amrita to pursue her education there (Dalmia 25). 

After first arriving in Paris, Sher-Gil painted at the school Grand Chaumiere under Pierre Vaillent until she was able to get further settled into the area. Once further settled, she began to study at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Art under Lucien Simon. It was here that she was taught to focus on the development of the human form and anatomy, as well as things like line, form and colour (Singh 212). She stayed at Ecole Nationale for almost three years and began to see her first success within the larger art community. In 1932 she was featured in an exhibition and in 1933 she was again featured, but this time won the honor of Associate of the Grand Salon. This made her the youngest individual and first Indian to win this title (Singh 213). This honor gave her the privilege of displaying two paintings at the exhibition every year (Dalmia 31). Paris is the first place we see a shift in her works from naturalism to a focus on anatomy. It has been suggested by critics that due to the influential painters around her, Sher-Gil started to incorporate the styles of painters such as Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh as they quickly became her favourites (Dalmia 30). However, it became increasingly clear to Sher-Gil that she wanted to go back to India and that is where she believed she was destined to become a great painter (Singh 1975).

In 1934 Sher-Gil returned to India and began painting on her family’s land in Simla. Almost immediately after her arrival, a large controversy surrounded her as she declined to accept an award from the Simla Fine Arts Exhibition. She had submitted ten paintings, out of which, five had been chosen by the exhibition to be displayed.  One of those five won an award but Sher-Gil felt it was a lesser option compared to the other paintings she had on display and declined the acceptance of the award. In the letter she wrote to the exhibition, she explains that the judges seemed to pick paintings that followed a very traditional view and she did not want to be set into this mold (Singh 214). Sher-Gil’s early works have been described as a literal and romanticised view of India that seems to follow a “tourist lens” of India (Dalmia 61). 

Sher-Gil settled back into India and while there she was able to gain traction as a recognized artist. In 1936 she won two prizes for self-portraits in the Delhi Fine Arts Exhibition (Singh 214). This award won her large amounts of publicity that resulted in a market for her to participate in individual commissions and solo exhibitions. In 1937 she won a gold medal in the annual exhibition which only further increased the recognition she was gaining (Dalmia 77). It is at this time that she paints her most famous works, including the South Indian Trilogy, and writes consistently that this was a happy time of her life. Sher-Gil painted upwards of 15 of her most famous paintings at this time while she traveled between Simla, Saraya and Lahore (Dalmia 2006).

 When Sher-Gil was asked why she decided to move back to India and out of the European art capital she explained that she wanted to be able to express and illustrate the country that had impacted her so much. She was known for saying that “vibrant art had to be connected to the soil of the land” (Singh 45). Sher-Gil felt that her identity was built in with the people and reality of India, and wanted to bring awareness to the lives of the poor (Dalmia 75). In simple terms, Sher-Gil felt she had only experienced India as an outsider and longed to become an insider through her paintings and the interactions they helped to stimulate with her local models (Tillotson 63). 

Sher-Gil’s original painting and drawing style was based on naturalism and keeping things as authentic to the reference as possible. She was taught to draw the same things over again to make sure that they came across as close to the original as possible. However, after she first returned to India there is a shift in her work that starts small. The colours she uses are influenced heavily by the art she was exposed to in Paris and early paintings show bright blues and greens that will eventually transition to reds and browns that develop deeper hues the more Sher-Gil uses them (Dalmia 60). In her mind, she begins to create a new style of Indian painting that is not traditional but still fundamentally Indian in spirit (Dalmia 2006). She is described as creating paintings that are modern in theory but do not follow any of the typical rules required in modern styles. While she uses clear lines and simple colours, there is still this balance between realism of the specific characters but it is done in a lucid stylization (Dalmia 90). This style is a large change from her early works which are based on realism and naturalism. Realism and Naturalism were the styles Sher-Gil was encouraged by her father for learning and she slowly moved away from them as her education expanded (Dalmia 2006). 

Sher-Gil faced many criticisms both in life and death, however, some of the most critical views of her work come from Sher-Gil herself. She noticed that over time she began to become detached both in a romantic sense as well as a humane sense (Tillotson 68). Her formalistic style was learned from other painters while she was in Paris, but it was also a conscious choice that she made. This formalism caused many individual critics to be very uncomfortable with the tensions it created in her work, mainly that it caused the feelings that form was more important than any individual details that may have been illustrated (Tillotson 65). Some critics felt that the attachment to the formalist values left a weakening of her connection to the human element in her work, to the point that some commented that it seemed she “painted colours more than subjects.”(Tillotson 65) Prioritizing form over the subject was the main critique that Sher-Gil faced and seemed to become more of an issue over time, especially voiced at some of her final works. 

In 1938, Sher-Gil married her first cousin, Dr. Victor Egan. They lived together for a few years in Hungary before moving back to Lahore in 1941. It was here in Lahore where Sher-Gil starts to paint again, completing a few small pieces before starting her final large work that was never completed. In December of 1941, Sher-Gil was struck with a mysterious illness and died two days later. She was 28 years old (Singh 216). Victor planned a Sikh style funeral for her that ended in the cremation of her body on the river Ravi (Dalmia 174). While there is no conclusive idea of the illness that killed her, there are many theories, ranging from basic things such as food poisoning or the straining and rupturing of internal organs due to picking up a heavy painting, to more extreme theories such as the deliberate killing of Sher-Gil at the hands of Victor (Dalmia 179-181).

Sher-Gil strived to express herself in a way that was different from the traditional art style that was prominent in India. In doing so she was able to create a new style and set a course for different art types to break into the artistic community. The largest collection of her works on display is housed at the National Gallery of Modern Art and while it is rare that one of her paintings goes up for sale, when it happens they are very hot items for purchase (Dalmia 207). Sher-Gil has been described as a liberator of Indian art (Singh 216) and continues to be an inspiration for not only artists within India, but also on a global scale as her work continues to captivate new audiences. 

Bibliography: 

Dalmia, Yashodhara (2006) Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life. New Delhi: Penguin. 

Singh, N. Iqbal (1975) “Amrita Sher-Gil.” India International Centre Quarterly 3:209-217

Singh, N. Iqbal (1984) Amrita Sher-Gil. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House

Tillotson, G.H.R. (1997) “A Painter of Concern: Critical Writings on Amrita Sher-Gil.” India International Centre Quarterly 4:57-72

Related Topics:

To see other female painters of colour:

https://sophia.smith.edu/global-modern-women-artists/

To see other famous painters from India: 

https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-art/painters/index.html

For a book on art and modernity in India: 

            Worldly affiliations: artistic practice, national identity, and modernism in India, 1930-1990 by Sonal, Khullar (available through the University of Lethbridge Library)

Related Websites: 

To see a simplified version of all of this with pictures:                                                      

https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/amrita-sher-gil-artworks-from-the-collection-of-national-gallery-of-modern-art-national-gallery-of-modern-art-ngma-new-delhi/QRaQm24R?hl=en

To see the website for the museum where most of her works are kept today:

http://www.ngmaindia.gov.in/index.asp

To see her obituary in the New York Times: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/obituaries/amrita-shergil-dead.html

To see some of her most popular pieces: 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/amrita-sher-gil

To see all things Amrita: 

http://amrita-sher-gil.com/

This article was written by: Tiana Williams (Spring 2020), who is entirely responsible for its content.