Amrita Sher-Gil
30 January 1913 – 5 December 1941
Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) was a Hungarian-Indian painter regarded as one of the most important modern artists of 20th-century India. Trained in Paris, she fused European post-impressionist technique with Indian subjects, producing celebrated works such as Young Girls and her South Indian trilogy. She died in Lahore at the age of 28, leaving a body of work now largely designated as National Art Treasures of India.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Amrita Sher-Gil.
- A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) Overlapped 28 years →
- Alan Paton (1903–1988) Overlapped 28 years →
- Alice Paul (1885–1977) Overlapped 28 years →
- Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) Overlapped 28 years →
- Arthur Eddington (1882–1944) Overlapped 28 years →
- Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002) Overlapped 28 years →
Life events
Amrita Sher-Gil was born to Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, a Sikh aristocrat and scholar, and Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, a Hungarian opera singer.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe Sher-Gil family relocated from Hungary to Summer Hill in Shimla, where Amrita began formal lessons in piano, violin, and painting.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSher-Gil trained in Paris, first at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Lucien Simon.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHer painting Young Girls earned a gold medal and her election as an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris in 1933, making her the youngest ever and only Asian to receive the honour at the time.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDriven by what she described as an intense longing to return to India, Sher-Gil moved back and began depicting the life of ordinary Indians.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFollowing travels through South India, she painted Bride's Toilet, Brahmacharis, and South Indian Villagers Going to Market, landmark works of modern Indian art.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSher-Gil married her Hungarian first cousin, physician Victor Egan, before the couple eventually settled in India.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSher-Gil and Egan moved to Lahore, then a major cultural centre of undivided India, where she prepared for a solo exhibition.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSher-Gil fell seriously ill and died in Lahore days before the opening of her first major solo show, the exact cause of her illness never conclusively established.
Source: en.wikipedia.org