Amrita Sher-Gil had a precocious skill for graphic arts. Her family helped her to study at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Arrived in Paris at the age of 16 in 1929, the teenager with a lonely temperament learns in parallel oil painting and Bohemian lifestyle. She won first prizes in the categories of portrait and still life.
On June 10 in London, Christie's sells a self-portrait painted in 1931, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm, lot 11 offered in an open range of estimates between £ 1 and 1.8M. Despite all the attention given to Amrita since she was declared a National Treasure artist in India in 1972, this artwork that remained in France was not known. It is her only self-portrait that was realized in profile.
At 18, she is now a coquettish young woman promised in marriage to a young man by her family and loved by another. The profile has the meaning of her new attitude, now proud of herself and enjoying to be coveted. The empty bowl on the table before her is the past that she no longer watches.
The teaching is excellent and the student is gifted. References to European art abound in this work. The profile recalls the aristocratic portraits of the Renaissance and the wide beret on the side of the head is a modern version from a portrait by Rembrandt. The use of color to strengthen psychology is following the model of the Polynesian women by Gauguin, certainly with the friendly encouragement of Valadon.
On June 10 in London, Christie's sells a self-portrait painted in 1931, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm, lot 11 offered in an open range of estimates between £ 1 and 1.8M. Despite all the attention given to Amrita since she was declared a National Treasure artist in India in 1972, this artwork that remained in France was not known. It is her only self-portrait that was realized in profile.
At 18, she is now a coquettish young woman promised in marriage to a young man by her family and loved by another. The profile has the meaning of her new attitude, now proud of herself and enjoying to be coveted. The empty bowl on the table before her is the past that she no longer watches.
The teaching is excellent and the student is gifted. References to European art abound in this work. The profile recalls the aristocratic portraits of the Renaissance and the wide beret on the side of the head is a modern version from a portrait by Rembrandt. The use of color to strengthen psychology is following the model of the Polynesian women by Gauguin, certainly with the friendly encouragement of Valadon.
The short life and extraordinary talent of Amrita Sher-Gil: http://t.co/pQoCmlzcOr pic.twitter.com/vKt0S5IfTN
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 27, 2015
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