Randomness

AMRITA SHER-GIL

Portrait of a Young Girl (1936)

Amrita Sher-Gil was a Hungarian-Indian painter, considered a pioneer in modern Indian art. After spending her childhood between Hungary and India, she went to Italy and then Paris to learn painting. At the beginning of her career, she mainly produced portraits in a style close to Post-Impressionism and the classical realism of the interwar period. From 1934 onwards, she decided to explore her Indian identity and culture. She was interested in classical Indian artistic traditions, notably the Mughal and Pahari schools of painting and the cave paintings at Ajanta, which she incorporated into her work. She painted scenes of the intimate, everyday life of rural India and offered a new perspective on Indian women, neither sexualized nor Orientalist.

Amrita Sher-Gil had romantic relationships with women, notably the painter Marie-Louise Chassany and the pianist Edith Láng László. Several of her paintings evoke the shared intimacy of two women, such as "Two Girls" and "Young Girls"

Sumair - Amrita Sher-Gil

1936

Oil on canvas. Amrita Sher-Gil is known for her portraits of herself, friends and family. This portrait is of her cousin, Sumair.

Every little detail ties into Indian culture— the red bindi is a sign of marriage and the green saree symbolizes harmony and fertility. The flower seems to be a pink carnation, which symbolizes gratitude.

al-ʾImām Ibn al-Qayyim said :

Pardoning is more beloved to Him than vengeance, mercy is more beloved to Him than punishment, grace is more beloved to Him than justice, and giving is more beloved to Him than withholding.