EVENING SALE | LIVE AUCTION, MUMBAI (16 FEBRUARY 2017)

AMRITA SHER‒GIL

(1913 ‒ 1941)

Untitled

Dated ‘25.6.1930’ (lower left)

1930

Graphite on paper

12.25 x 9 in (31 x 22.6 cm)

Rs 25,00,000 ‒ 35,00,000

$ 37,315 ‒ 52,240

NON‒EXPORTABLE NATIONAL ART TREASURE

PROVENANCE:

Private Collection, India

“The painter in Ervin was quick to

recognize Amrita’s artistic talent,

and he guided her to move

away from the highly emotional

early paintings and to draw from

reality, emphasizing structure

rather than naturalism. Under her

uncle’s direction, her lines started

to become strong and angular,

whether in a head of Beethoven

or a self‒portrait. However she

did not give up painting water

colours, particularly of the female

figure, in an emotionally charged

and sensuous manner.” (Vivan

Sundaram ed.,

Amrita Sher‒Gil: A

Self‒portrait in Letters & Writings,

Volume 1

, New Delhi: Tulika

Books, 2010, p. xl)

Sher‒Gil

maintained

several

sketchbooks of drawings and

watercolours, and it is likely that

the present lot, made in 1930, is

from one such sketchbook. At

this time, the artist was seventeen

years old and had once again

returned to Hungary, after a year

in Paris studying at the Grand

Chaumière and the studio

of Lucien Simon at the École

Nationale des Beaux‒Arts.

recto

verso

A child prodigy in art, Amrita Sher‒Gil showed an

intense, almost obsessive, penchant for drawing and

painting from the early age of six. Sher‒Gil’s early subjects

ranged from illustrations of Hungarian fairytales during

her school years in Dunaharaszti, Hungary, to painting

impressions of women characters from films and novels.

Her talent was appreciated and encouraged by many,

including her uncle Ervin Baktay, who encouraged her to

draw from live models, such as in the present lot.

Amrita seated at a bay window, c. 1932, 11 Rue Bassano, Paris