Young Girls (1932) – Amrita Sher-Gil

 “I can only paint in India. Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse, Braque… India belongs to me”…

With this rather bold statement, Amrita Sher-Gil, a pioneer of modern Indian art who contemporary critics proclaimed as one of the greatest painters of the century, declares her life’s vocation: to chronicle rural India, and in particular, the lives of Indian women, in her paintings. Yet it would take many years before Sher-Gil found her true calling. First, she had to travel to Europe as a precocious 16 year old to study painting at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the École des Beaux-Arts, and immerse herself in the artistic, intellectual and social fabric of Bohemian Paris in the early 20th century. Since childhood, Sher-Gil’s innate artistic gift was recognized and nurtured by her well-heeled family and their elite social circle in colonial India. Until she left Paris, her painting practice was entirely shaped by the Western artistic tradition, and indebted to the style of Post-Impressionist masters such as Gauguin, Modigliani, Cézanne and Renoir. Young Girls (1932), a painting of her sister Indira and a French friend, was Sher-Gil’s first breakthrough that brought renown and accolades, such as the gold medal award and election as an associate member of the Grand Salon of 1933, at only 19 years old. At the time, she was the Salon’s youngest-ever member, and to this day, is the only Asian artist to have received the title. Critics praised the painting for its technical execution: the complex palette of colours and varied shades of white were evidence of a consummate painter, who in her first year at Paris was already reputed to have painted with an exceptional conviction and maturity for her age. A growing restlessness within the European scene led Sher-Gil to return home to India, where her ‘artistic mission’ was formalised, and her style, consciously integrated with classical Indian art and influenced by Rabindranath and Abanindranath Tagore, underwent a major shift. Unfortunately, just as Sher-Gil had found her stride, she died at 28 years old, days before the opening of her first major solo exhibition. Sher-Gil’s works have inspired generations of Indian artists, and are of such importance to modern Indian art and culture that the Indian government has declared them National Art Treasures and forbidden the removal of her works from the country. Most of her paintings are exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.