List of paintings by Amrita Sher-Gil

This is a list of paintings by Hungarian-born Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941). Over 60 of her paintings, of which most were portraits and self-portraits, were created between 1930 and 1932 in Hungary and France. 19 were self-portraits painted in Europe between 1930 and 1934, and two, including one in a blue sari, were later completed in India. Several of her paintings were of nudes; some of herself and others based on models of which most were female.
In her early years, Sher-Gil was a frequent visitor to Zebegény, in Hungary. There she painted a church in 1932, and would several years later paint other views of the village including Winter and the Merry Cemetery. The early 1930s were also the years she worked at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, painted mostly family and colleagues, and won awards at the annual competitions for portrait and still life for three years in a row. In the summer of 1932, she submitted six paintings to the "end of year concours", Paris, for which she received second mention in her capacity as foreigner. The six included Violins, Nude Self-Portrait with Palette, and Young Girls. In her words, "my work in those days was absolutely Western in conception and execution except for the fact that it was never entirely tame or conventional".
Sher-Gil later wrote that "towards the end of 1933 I began to be haunted by an intense longing to return to India, feeling in some strange inexplicable way that there lay my destiny as a painter". She subsequently painted Self-Portrait as a Tahitian in early 1934, while still in Paris.
Sher-Gil returned to India in late 1934, with 60 of her oil paintings. Then, she produced View from Majithia House, The Little Girl in Blue and Three Girls. In September 1935, five of her 10 submitted paintings were shown at the 63rd annual Simla Fine Arts Exhibition, opened by Viceroy Lord Willingdon. Those exhibited included Portrait of Father, Mother India, then known as Beggar Woman, Woman with Sunflower, then called Indian Peasant Woman, and Young Girls, then titled Conversation. The Man in White, The Woman in Blue, The Model, Portrait of Malcolm Muggeridge, and a small landscape were rejected. Feeling that they did not recognise the best of her work, she declined the Raja of Faridkot's prize the judges awarded her for Young Girls.
In March 1936, Sher-Gil won awards for two self-portraits at the fifth annual exhibition of the All-India Fine Arts Society, held at The Imperial, New Delhi. Barada Ukil included 11 of Sher-Gil's works in his arts exhibition at The Cecil, Simla, held in September 1936. These included Portrait of Mr. F. M. Khan, A Village Scene, Mother India, Composition, The Dreamer, and The Girl in Red. In December 1936, Sher-Gil's work was displayed at the exhibition hall in the Public Gardens, Hyderabad. There, the wealthy art collector, Nawab Salar Jung, showed interest in two paintings, was offered three, then declined to purchase any.
In October 1937, Sher-Gil painted her plein-air series, which included her first paintings with animals, one of which was The Story. From 21 to 27 November that year, 33 of her works were displayed at her solo exhibition at Faletti's Hotel in Lahore, British India. There, she revealed her first two Indian compositions, The Story and Siesta. At Lahore, four paintings were sold in total; The Little Girl in Blue, The Story, Pink Self-portrait, and the Vina Player. She wrote that "with the eternal significance of form and colour I interpret India and, principally, the life of the Indian poor on the plane that transcends the plane of mere sentimental interest".
In 1938 five of Sher-Gil's paintings were exhibited at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society's exhibition in Delhi, and included Elephants Bathing in a Green Pool (1938), Composition (1936), and View from Studio (1934), which won the prize. In the same year she married Viktor Egan in Hungary, and there painted Two Girls among others. Returning to India in 1939, she moved to Saraya, Uttar Pradesh, and there her creations included Woman on Charpoy, Elephant Promenade, The Ancient Story Teller, and Haldi Grinders. The dome of the family's estate features in the background of some of these, though she omits the Saraya Sugar Mills and its chimneys and smoke.
In 1940, six of Sher-Gil's works were displayed at the Indian Academy of Fine Arts' Amritsar Exhibition (31 October – 10 November), to raise money for the War Fund. These included Siesta, Sleep, Elephant Promenade, Elephants, The Swing, and the winning piece, The Ancient Story Teller. Sher-Gil died at midnight on 5 December 1941, leaving The Last Unfinished Painting at Lahore.
By 1948, the Indian government had acquired 98 of Sher-Gil's paintings. Following her father's death, several paintings of hers were saved by Hungarian-Indian social worker Fori Nehru. The art restorer, Rupika Chawla, found several of Sher-Gil's paintings to have been altered by Sher-Gil herself. These include Siesta, Woman Holding Fan, and Hillside. In 1979 her works including Camels and Ancient Story Teller, were displayed at an exhibition in New delhi, organised by the Budapest Kunsthalle.
Under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972), formed in accordance with the UNESCO 1970 Convention to regulate the internal and external dealing in antiquities in India, the Archaeological Survey of India in 1976 and 1979, named Sher-Gil's works as Indian treasure that if sold in India, cannot leave the country. Of the at least 143 listed paintings created by Sher-Gil, most are held by her relatives, and 44 of the 45 paintings that belonged to Viktor Egan and some paintings that were with her father, were donated to the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.