In 1934, when Amrita Sher-Gil was just 21, she painted The Little Girl in Blue, and is believed to have depicted her second cousin, Babit. At Amrita’s first solo show in 1937, it was acquired by eminent art critic Charles Fabri (rumoured to have become her lover) and has been treasured in the same family ever since.
For the first time after Amrita showcased the work in 1937, in Lahore’s Faletti Hotel, it will be on public display in Delhi (Bikaner House) and Mumbai (The Taj Mahal Palace) before being part of Sotheby’s first Mumbai sale, Boundless: India, later this month. Like Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, Amrita is much-loved and remembered for her self-portraits. But she was also recognised for depicting women in their silent resolve or loneliness, breaking the norm of content and submissive portrayal.
“The influence Amrita Sher-Gil wielded in her tragically short life was enormous. With her avant-garde approach, not only in her technique and style, but in her presentation of female subjects, she shaped the future of art in India perhaps more than any other artist of the time,” said Yamini Mehta, international head of modern and contemporary south Asian art at Sotheby’s, in a statement. This is the third oil painting by Sher-Gil to ever come to auction in India, and the seventh offered anywhere in the world. It is estimated to fetch anywhere between Rs 10 crore to 15 crore.
View Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Little Girl in Blue at:
Delhi
Bikaner House, Pandara Road, New Delhi on 17 November, open until noon.
Mumbai
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Apollo Bandar, Colaba, Mumbai on 27 November, 2018, 10am – 5pm; 28 November, 10am – 4pm.
Featured artwork: The Little Girl in Blue, oil on canvas, 1934, 40.6 x 48 cm
