Inside Amrita Sher-Gil’s Ladies’ Enclosure

The Indian art world has, over the years, seen various artists making significant and often path-breaking contributions through their craft. But there are few artists who are as fascinating and brilliant as Amrita Sher-Gil. 

Considered to be a pioneer of modernism in India, Sher-Gil’s short but highly fruitful career established her as an eminent artist with an aesthetic sensibility that blended European and Indian elements skilfully. Through her work, Sher-Gil captured the lives and experiences of women in early 20th century India. Her paintings are lauded for their timeless themes and qualities that powerfully resonate with women’s narratives even today.

Amrita in her studio in Simla, 1937 | Photo: Umrao Singh Sher-Gil
Image courtesy: Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Archive, New Delhi

Sher-Gil was born in 1913 to a Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, Hungarian-Jewish opera singer and Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, a Sikh aristocrat, scholar and photographer. After her promising young talent was discovered at a really young age, Sher-Gil received formal training in art from reputable schools and tutors. In 1929, upon the recommendation of her uncle, Sher-Gil went on to study art at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The following years marked the beginning of her success as an artist. Nonetheless, a newfound appreciation and longing for Indian art as well as a desire to be closer to her Indian ancestry prompted Sher-Gil to relocate to India.

Sher-Gil’s return to India in 1934 saw a change in her artistic practice. Along with a transformed colour palette that reflected earthy Indian tones, the subjects of her paintings also became increasingly representative of her surroundings.

Amrita painting In the Ladies’ Enclosure, Saraya, Gorakhpur, 1938 | Image courtesy: Vivan Sundaram

The oil on canvas masterpiece In the Ladies’ Enclosure was painted in 1938, a few years after her return to India. This seminal work of art marks the zenith of Sher-Gil’s evolution as an artist and is the outcome of her years spent in training and developing her talent. 

Painted at her family’s estate in Saraya, Gorakhpur, the work depicts a group of women gathered in a field. Notable artist, and Sher-Gil’s nephew, Vivan Sundaram explains that the female subjects present in this painting are, in fact, people known to Sher-Gil – including members of the Majithia family who had been living in the estate at Saraya over long periods of time.

Bride’s Toilet, 1937

The painting offers an arrangement of subjects that is similar to her earlier work Bride’s Toilet, 1937. In both paintings, the main subject is a young woman positioned in the centre with an older woman dressing her hair. However, both paintings, even though executed just a year apart, showcase varied painting styles and techniques.

A striking characteristic of In the Ladies’ Enclosure is the composition’s flat relief, indicating a further departure from realism. As noted by Sundaram, “The bride’s profiled features are drawn schematically: on a pale pink skin colour, four notational lines for the eye and a tiny dot for the pupil. This is to de-romanticize the face – modern art’s agenda to get rid of the shackles of realist painting. Amrita’s flat application of paint and minimal drawing gives this person a remote presence, a quiet austerity.” (Vivan Sundaram, Amrita Sher-Gil: In the Ladies’ Enclosure: A Close Reading and a Walk Through the Enclosure, Mumbai: Saffronart, 2021)

In the Ladies’ Enclosure, 1938, Oil on canvas, 21.5 x 31.5 in | Estimate: Rs 30 – 40 crores ($4.2 – 5.6 million)

In the painting, Sher-Gil uses a palette that is charged with vibrant and essentially Indian hues. The central figure dressed in a vermillion salwar-kameez and the reddish-brown sari-clad figure standing next to her are both connected by their vastly different shades of red. The small girl in a magenta kurta and the hibiscus flowers further diversify the reddish tones in the foreground. Accompanying the reds are the starkly different, yet complementing, blue and green tones of the land, hedge and sky. Art historian Yashodhara Dalmia explains that Sher-Gil’s choice of colours is perhaps an attempt to “bring out the contrast between the hot reds and the greens, one finds in the early Rajput miniatures” (Yashodhara Dalmia, Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life, New Delhi: Penguin, 2006, pp. 106-107)

While working on this composition, Sher-Gil was also attempting plein air painting, incorporating the rich stylistic features of Rajput and Pahari miniatures. “In these she freely ignored the actual landscapes but used them in part in her compositions and colour organizations. Nor were the landscapes a motif for the foreground but were an integral part of the composition.” (Dalmia, p. 107)

Sher-Gil painted In the Ladies’ Enclosure in the final years of her brief but prodigious life. After her death in 1941, a portfolio of twelve of her most important works, chosen by Sher-Gil prior to her passing away, was posthumously published. In the Ladies’ Enclosure was one of the twelve.


Watch Saffronart CEO Dinesh Vazirani as he takes us through the legendary Amrita Sher-Gil’s life and artistic journey, culminating in In the Ladies’ Enclosure.

Read the essay by Vivan Sundaram to find out more about the artist’s unique application of colour and who the subjects in the painting are.

Bid on Sher-Gil’s works at Saffronart’s Summer Live Auction on 13 July 2021.

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Paris Art Week Takes On New International Contemporary Markets

 Elizabeth Prendiville shares news about the Paris Art Week and the FIAC Art Fair

Mona Hatoum Projection (velvet), 2013 Silk velvet and mild steel 97 x 162 cm Read more at http://www.fiac.com/galeries/white_cube#Fqzvh35lpBO6mfFu.99

Mona Hatoum
Projection (velvet), 2013
Silk velvet and mild steel
97 x 162 cm
Read more at http://www.fiac.com/galeries/white_cube#Fqzvh35lpBO6mfFu.99

New York: In this season of abundant international art fairs, Paris is the most recent destination for stunning contemporary art and culture. The 40th year of the Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) was held this past weekend in Paris. Although its opening ceremonies followed the notorious Frieze art fair in London, this art fair stands apart historically and stylistically. With a forty-year tradition of showcasing the most premier performances, artists, galleries and art institutions, the FIAC is a yearly must for any international art fair enthusiast.

Dan Rees Vue de Solo pr, 2010 exhibition view Photo : Aur Read more at http://www.fiac.com/galeries/new_galerie#yUIdDyGeAWp1JaY5.99

Dan Rees
Vue de Solo pr, 2010
exhibition view
Photo : Aur
Read more at http://www.fiac.com/galeries/new_galerie#yUIdDyGeAWp1JaY5.99

In past years the fair has had a specifically French focus and displayed mostly established French artists and galleries. This year an upward trend in artists outside of the country bodes well for the South East Asian Contemporary Art market as well as other destinations. 70% of the exhibitions are now from other international markets. This expansion is bringing in a new buyer community as well as forging a new opportunity for fair loyalists. In addition to this new trend on non-French contemporary art communities, a number of new fair programs and events have sparked. It is a given that the more international markets are incorporated, the more opportunity there will be for innovative performances and speakers. With this increase in international exhibitors Paris was the jewel of the international contemporary art market worldwide this past weekend.

Tony Cragg Cubic Early Form, 2011 bronze 102 x 105 x 120 cm the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery Read more at http://www.fiac.com/galeries/marian_goodman#MUBs74K7q2yvS6wD.99

Tony Cragg
Cubic Early Form, 2011
bronze
102 x 105 x 120 cm
the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery
Read more at http://www.fiac.com/galeries/marian_goodman#MUBs74K7q2yvS6wD.99

Galleries that exhibited this week include Herve Perdriolle Gallery, White Cube, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner and New Galerie. In addition to the traditional gallery booths in the fair, a number of other programs affiliated and unaffiliated with the FIAC took place. This included outdoor programming, film screenings, performances, installations, public art and a number of conference panels.

To learn more about this year’s fair, please visit the FIAC website here.