Amrita Sher-Gil

Hailed as the "Indian Frida Kahlo", Amrita Sher-Gil was a Hungarian-Indian painter. She was born in Budapest, Hungary to Umrao Singh Shergill, a sikh aristocrat, and Marie Antoniette Gottesman, a Jewish Hungarian opera singer.

## Early Life

She was born in January 1913, at the eve of the first world war, in Budapest, Hungary. Because of the war, her family was stuck in Hungary until the end of the war. When she was 8, they were finally able to make it back to her father's family estate in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. At the foot of the Himalayas, the estate would be her home until she was 16 years old, when her mother moved them to Paris in an attempt to help Amrita hone her art capabilities.

## Art Career

She developed an interest in the arts at a young age; she started painting at 5 years and at the age of 9 she would act in plays and play the piano. When she was 10 her mother came across an Italian sculptor in Shimla and Amrita studied under him for a bit. When he moved back to Italy in 1924, they followed suit and Amrita was enrolled in Santa Annunziata. Santa Annunziata was a famous art school in Florence and exposed Amrita to a bunch of Italian artists, which even furthered her interests. After studying for a few months, she went back to India.

In 1926, one of her Hungarian relatives Ervin Bektay was visiting Shimla and chanced upon her painting. Being a former painter himself, he became her first critic and encouraged her to develop her skills. She began by using the maids and servants around the house as her subjects. She was then sent off to Paris, which was considered the considered the hub of modern art. Initially she studied at the Grande Chaumiere art school under Pierre Vaillent, however her interest in the institution soon faded and she enrolled in Ecole de Beaux-Arts under Lucien Simon.

After a couple of years she found that her painting subjects were lacking in Europe and headed back to India where she visited the southern part and would paint subjects related to social issues within those communities. Her work gained recognition, not only because she was bringing attention to issues of the time but because her work differed so much from the current art styles of Tagore and others that consisted of light dreamy pastels and went for deeper colors with a mix of European and classical Indian influences.

## Marriage&Death

She married Victor Egan, a doctor with whom she had been close for many years. She had multiple affairs before and throughout their marriage and had multiple abortions which Egan performed on her. Her very last abortion, four years into their marriage, went wrong and she died of a hemorrhage at the age of 28. Her mother blamed Egan for her death.

## Legacy

She is considered to be one of the greatest most affluential Indian painters of the modern age.

## References

1. ↑ Hughes, Kathryn. “The Indian Frida Kahlo.” *Telegraph.co.uk*, The Telegraph, 3 June 2013.
2. ↑ “Amrita Sher-Gil Biography - Paintings, Artworks, Achievements & Facts.” *Agra India – History, Architecture, Facts, Myths, Visit Timing & Entry Fee*, Cultural India.
3. ↑ “Amrita Sher-Gil.” *Encyclopædia Britannica*, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 Apr. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Amrita-Sher-Gil.
4. ↑ “Who Is Amrita Shergil? Everything You Need to Know.” *Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline*, www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/amrita-shergil-5312.php.
5. ↑ Kapur, Geeta. “Sher-Gil, Amrita.” *Oxford Art Online*, 2003, doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t078198.