Amrita Shergill Essay

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Amrita Shergill, one of the most famous painters of India, was born on 30th January 1913 in Budapest city of Hungary. Her father, Umrao Singh Shergill Majithia was a Sikh aristocrat, who was a scholar in Sanskrit. Her mother was a Hungarian singer, Marie Antoinette Gottesmann. Amrita Shergil was the eldest of the two daughters born to her parents, her younger sister being Indira Sundaram, now the mother of the modern artist Vivan Sundaram. The beauty and depth of Amrita Sher Gil's paintings has led to her being popularly called as 'India's Frida Kahlo'.

As Amrita Shergill's biography and life history unfolds, we get to know that the painter spent her early childhood in the Dunaharasti village of Hungary. In the year 1921, her family shifted from Hungary to the beautiful hill station of Shimla. It was during her stay in Shimla that Amrita developed an interest in the art of painting and she started receiving tuitions from an Italian sculptor living there. When the painter moved back to Italy in 1924, Amrita and her mother also followed him. After reaching Italy, she joined Santa Anunciata, a Roman Catholic institution.

In Santa Anunciata, Amrita Shergil received exposure to the works of the Italian artists, which furthered her interest in painting. She also received formal training in painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, under Lucien Simon. During that time, she was greatly influenced by the European painters, like Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. Her paintings reflect a strong influence of the Western modes of painting, especially the ones practiced in the Bohemian circles of Paris in the early 1930s.

Amrita Sher Gil returned to India in the year 1934 and from then onwards, began her never-ending journey in the field of the traditions of Indian art. In the country, she was influenced by the Mughal miniatures schools as well as the Ajanta paintings.

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