Dubbed as India’s Frida Kahlo, Amrita Sher-Gil was a pioneer of modern art in India. She began her training at the tender age of 11 at Santa Annunziata, a famous art school in Florence, Italy. In her initial years, she was trained under French artists like Pierre Vaillent and Lucien Simon. It is said that more than the training, her travel and experiences in different cities and their art forms played a crucial role in building her unique artistic perspective. 

This week, Amrita Sher-Gil’s painting, “In a Ladies’ Enclosure”, was auctioned for ₹37.8 crores ($ 5.14 million) at the summer live sale of Mumbai auction house, Saffronart. This is the second most expensive artwork by an Indian artist after VS Gaitonde’s untitled work from 1961. 

Sher-Gill completed “In a Ladies Enclosure” in 1938 at her family estate in Saraya, Uttar Pradesh. As can be seen in the rare photo below, the people who modelled for this painting were people who lived in the Sarmaya estate. The central figure of this painting is Amrita’s niece, Tejwant “Teji” Kaur, depicted in red clothes dotted with white accents.

In a letter to the art critic Karl Khandalwala, she described this painting as “a composition in which horizontal lines dominate, a slab of pale green sky, a horizontal coral-coloured wall in the distance, a slice of flat ground dotted with tiny figures carrying pitchers, and enclosed by a low olive-green hedge is a foreground of dull green grass studded with tiny pink flowers and red birds, a row of sitting women in pungent colours and a thin black dog accentuates the horizontal lines… a couple of hibiscus bushes with carmine blossoms and a standing girl break the horizontal accent ever so slightly.”

Amrita Singh still lives in spirit and memory and is remembered for her revolutionary contribution to Indian art. Her legacy can still be witnessed in Lutyen’s Delhi where a road is named after her. Amrita Shergil Marg, often called the Billionaire’s Row of Delhi, is currently one of the most expensive and posh areas in Delhi with the price of a bungalow costing 140 crores and above. Some of the biggest business tycoons such as Rajiv Singh of the DLF group, Guptas the MGF group, Rajan Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel Ltd., the Burmans of Dabur, Goenkas of the RPG group, have their bungalows here. 

Will it be too far-fetched to say that everything associated with this phenomenal artist’s name turns to gold?