AMRITA SHER-GIL(30 JAN 1913-5 DEC 1941)By Cheryl Rachel Jojy

CONTENTSEarly lifeArtistic Education

CareerLegacy

Gallery and works

EARLY LIFEShe was born in Budapest ,Hungary to Umrao Singh

Sher-Gil Majithia, a Sikh aristocrat and a scholar in Sanskrit and Persian, and Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, a Jewish opera singer from Hungary. She was the elder of 2 daughters born. She was the niece of indologist Ervin Baktay. He guided her by critiquing her work and giving her an academic foundation to grow on. He also instructed her to use servants as models. This would later lead her to return to India.

In 1921 her family moved to Summer Hill in Shimla. She soon beganto learn the piano and violin, and at age 9, began giving concerts and acting in plays with her sister, at Shimla’s Gaiety Theatre on Mall road, Shimla.

ARTISTIC EDUCATION In 1924 she was enrolled in Santa Anunziata,

an art school in Florence. At 16 she travelled with her mother to train

as a painter in Paris, at the Grande Chaumiere under Pierre Vaillant and Lucian Simon and later at École des Beaux-Arts, she drew inspiration from European painters such as Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, while coming under the influence of her teacher Lucian Simon and the company of artist friends.

CAREER Her works while in India are equal in their

impact, to the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Jamini Roy of the Bengal school of art.

Her art was strongly influenced by the two Tagore’s, Rabindranath and Abanindranath who were the pioneers of the Bengal School of painting.

Her portraits of women resemble works by Rabindranath Tagore while the use of ‘Chiaroscuro’ and bright colors reflect the influence of Ananindranath.

During her stay at Sarayu she painted the Village Scene, In the Ladies' Enclosure and Siesta all of which portray the leisurely rhythms of life in rural India.

LEGACY Her 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 the are housed in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.

The Amrita Shergill Marg is a road in Lutenyas’ delhi named after her.

GALLERY AND WORKS

Information from Wikipedia.