The Easel as her Mirror

Even though the show is small,the title is justified as it maps the different faces of the artist,starting with her earliest works made when she was 14. The set was drawn when her uncle,painter and indologist Ervin Baktay told the young Sher-Gil in Shimla to introspect her art,asking her “to learn things from the start again”. With her pencil,Sher-Gil was left to study her various moods and the anatomy. There are portraits of her flaunting a blunt haircut. In another set,she has strands on her forehead,dressed as a devadasi — whom she describes as “prostitutes of gods”.

Already painting at the age of five-six,at 16 she sailed to Europe to train as an artist in Paris. Inspiration came from European masters such as Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. The work from this period are indicative of these leanings. In the central work of the exhibition,Self Portrait with Ease,she is fashioned as a European,the elements of romanticism evident. This would change once she returned to India,when she turned her gaze to Indian subjects and borrowed from Rabindranath and Abanindranath Tagore. Then,she was painted as an Indian,in a sari with the contours of the figure more abstract.

Even though Karode shares that in one of her letters written from Europe,Sher-Gil seems to be complaining about having to do another self-portrait — possibly due to their commercial success — in the frames itself she seems to be at comfort. She is conscious of her beauty and ability to make heads turn. This is reflected even in the photographs taken by her father Umrao Singh Sher-Gil. Dressed in white,she wears jewels in one image. In another,a simple pearl string and white gown completes the picture. She appears at work too — in her Shimla studio,in front of the easel,turning just for the camera. “She died when she was 28,but did so much in that short span,” says Karode,recalling Sher-Gil’s words to art historian and critic Karl Khandalavala,that she was an artist even before she was an artist.

Timeline

1913 Born in Budapest to Sikh aristocrat Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia and his Hungarian wife Marie Antoinette Gottesmann Erdobaktay

1921 The family returns to India and settles in Shimla; by this time Sher-Gil is already drawing

1929 Sher-Gil is admitted to the Grande Chaumiere in Paris and later joins the studio of Lucien Simon at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts

1934-1938 She is in India; painting among others the famous South Indian trilogy of paintings

1938 Marries Dr Victor Egan,her first cousin,in Budapest

1939 The couple move to the Majithia family estate at Saraya,Gorakhpur

1941 They settle in Lahore. Sher-Gil passes away after a brief illness