it seems to me that i never began painting that i have always painted and i have always had with a strange certitude the conviction that i was meant to be a painter and nothing else these are the words of a young girl who became a national treasure to more than one billion people one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century regarded as a true pioneer of modern indian art her name ambrita shergill [Music] amrita shergill was born in budapest in hungary on the 30th of january 1913. her parents had met in london and married in 1912 in lahore india which today is in pakistan her father umrah singh sheer gil was a sikh aristocrat from the punjab india a persian and sanskrit scholar and pioneer photographer her mother marie antoinette gotesman was a red-headed hungarian jewish singer amrita was baptized a roman catholic and grew up in the pest district of budapest with her younger sister indara who she was very fond of at the end of the first world war the hungarian economy collapsed revolution and counter revolutions followed resulting in the shergill family leaving budapest to move in in 1921 to northern india the family settled in the summerhill district of shimla a beautiful town in the himalayan foothills which was at the time the summer capital of british india she had a relatively privileged upbringing and at the age of eight sheer girls started formal art lessons with a major whitmarsh but it wasn't long before she refused to follow his very formal drawing instruction and he was soon replaced by bevan paytman she also studied the piano and violin and by the age of nine cheer girl along with her younger sister indra were giving concerts and acting in plays at shimla's gear to theater in 1923 shergill's mother met an italian sculptor in shimla and when he later decided to move to italy she and shergill moved to florence her mother having recognized shergill's artistic talent enrolled at a school in florence hoping that this would instill a love of the italian renaissance in her daughter but shergill soon rebelled against the formality of the teaching and insisted on being sent back home to shimla she arrived back there late in 1924 years later she did acknowledge the experience was the beginning of her love of the renaissance masters in 1926 her maternal uncle irvin baklte a painter and noted anthropologist visited shimla he recognized her talent and encouraged her to take her art more seriously he placed emphasis on observational drawing and insisted sure girl should copy real-life models exactly as she saw them this hurt sheer gill and despite bacteria's encouragement which introduced her to a wider indian cultural world beyond her mother's social circles her period of tuition under her uncle was short-lived around this time shergill was expelled from her convent school for declaring herself an atheist with her mother's yearning to return to europe and shergill wanted to develop her artistic talent the decision was made to relocate to paris so early 1929 at the age of 16 shergill together with her mother and sister set sail for france the bohemian lifestyle in paris inspired chair gill not only did it invigorate desire to paint which she did with the conviction of maturity rarely seen in a 16 year old but it also awakened her sexual desires as perhaps can be implied from this drawing the tinderbox which she completed around this time she enrolled at the grand chamier academy under the watchful eye of painter pierre valiant who did much to improve her drawing but later in october 1929 she began attending lucian simon's classes at the prestigious ecole de bozart simon had occasionally visited the chamier academy and probably first met amrita there he encouraged her and allowed her to attend his classes despite her being underage she studied with simone for the next four years he had an easygoing teaching style which suited cher gill nevertheless her time at the eccol was structured by the constant rhythm of competitions portraits life classes and weekly sketches she began to take a painting very seriously and was determined to learn to speak and write french shergill was the ecaldi bulls arts first indian student it was here she met boris taslicki in 1930 with whom she had a passionate affair he was 19 and she was 17. they painted each other's portraits with a bravado much influenced by the romantic painters such as delacroix she often painted him in bellowing white shirts with sensuous lips and a flamboyant flare and yet was talented enough to also capture his vulnerability early in 1931 when sheer gill became 18 her parents introduced her to yousef ali khan a muslim and a son of a wealthy landowner from uttara pradesh her mother was keen on the marriage there were also rumors at the time that shea girl was having an affair with her first cousin victor egan a young doctor the engagement did not last long and in a letter to her mother in august 1931 amrita tried to explain how yusuf was not the right man for her and that her affair with victor was finished as a result of the brief relationship with ali khan shergill became pregnant and ended up having an abortion there were strong rumors at the time that sher gill had had an affair with her roommate marie louise chazinet although when confronted via letter by her mother she denied the relationship it is clear that shergill was conflicted about her sexuality what followed though was a series of brief love affairs with both men and women despite her troubled love life having to manage her own feelings and her mother's expectations and emotions 1931 was the year in which cheer gill felt she was finally beginning to paint well in october 1931 in a letter to her mother she wrote i painted a few very good paintings everybody says that i have improved immensely even that person whose criticism in my view is most important to me my own self also in 1931 shergill met the art critic denise proto and was instantly captivated by her she went crazy about my hair and absolutely wanted to do my portrait with my hair loose prateau later wrote in 1932 shergill painted young girls it depicts her sister indara sitting confidently opposite shergill's partly undress friend denise proto whose face is obscured by our hair one woman is depicted as bold and daring whilst the other he's reserved and hidden the painting perhaps reflects the different aspects of chergil's personality on the one hand outgoing and sociable as those who encountered her at parisian parties would confirm whilst on the other tucked away painting introverted and self-conscious however critics and art enthusiasts were so impressed by young girls that amrita shergill was elected an associate of the grand salon in paris she was the youngest person and the first asian to be given the honor during her time at the ecole de bull's art shergill painted many nudes there is nothing coy about them as can be seen in this painting featuring a woman laid on a bed with a sinuous scarf and with dragon motif seemingly reflecting her tumbling hair but these are also paintings of real women whose personalities are there for all to see sher gill managed to capture their feelings contemplations introversions and confidence yet often these paintings seem to reflect an aspect of chergil's own personality caught between her hungarian and indian existences perhaps this conflict is a strong element of the painting self-portrait as a tahitian the style suggests the strong influence of the french impressionist painter paul gogan who was also conflicted between sophisticated french society and his simple tahitian idyll his paintings of tahitian women are reflected here in shergill's stylization of her nude figure the plain ponytail and distant somber expression on her face her self-portrait whilst being a direct tribute to gogan perhaps was the confirmation that her artistic future lay outside of europe late in 1934 amrita shergill returned to india feeling that her experience at the heart of western modern art had also pushed her towards a deeper appreciation for indian art she soon set about developing her own distinct style which according to her would be fundamentally indian in subject spirit and technical expression i can only paint in india she wrote to her father in 1934 europe belongs to picasso matisse black and the rest but india belongs to me her father was concerned about sher gill returning to india he knew how headstrong she was how independent and wondered how she would fit into india's traditional social structure but he wasn't genuinely worried he knew she had to find her own way in life and he also knew it would be pointless to try to change her mind early in 1935 shergill met the english journalist malcolm mudgridge who was working for the calcutta statesman they had a brief affair and when he left india later that year she began to travel around the country she enthusiastically embraced indian culture deciding to wear only sarees and focused on painting india's poor particularly the everyday lives of women she painted them at the market at weddings and undertaking menial domestic chores the paintings were infused with a melancholy in loneliness but there is a raw honesty about them at a time when most artists portrayed women as content and compliant shergill's treatment of female subjects was singularly unique revealing their dignity and their silent resolve hers was not a romanticized view of the poor these pictures evoke the silent world inhabited by most women at the time in india with little power or authority their own hopes and dreams were repressed by that society's conventions this was a move that connected with shergill's own yearning for somewhere to belong the complexities of her own life her mixed parentage her art school background in paris and her bisexuality made her both an insider and outsider this is what perhaps drove her to try to reconcile her modern ideas and sensibilities with their enthusiastic passion for traditional indian art in 1937 shergill went on a tour of south india and was much influenced by the cave paintings at ajanta this inspired a new simplicity in her paintings following a visit to the caves she later produced her south indian trilogy the bride's toilet the brahmacharis and the south indian villagers going to market she was becoming famous and in november of 1937 shergill held an exhibition of her paintings at valletti's hotel in lahore her work belonged to no particular school or style of painting been primarily influenced by the fusion of her experiences in hungary paris and india she had created a body of work that was simultaneously aggressively modern and decidedly indian although she was now well known in the indian art world she was criticized in india for the western influence on her painting and for its departure from the bengal school of painting nevertheless the exhibition would prove to be a landmark and contributed to a fundamental change in the perception of indian or endurances towards contemporary art in 1938 amrita shergill went to hungary and proposed to her cousin victor egan married him only to reveal shortly afterwards that she was pregnant it seems that the marriage was one of convenience although they had been close in their youth and egan who was a doctor arranged for an abortion her mother strongly disapproved of the marriage because they were related but also possibly because victor was neither wealthy nor a prominent social figure it seems that egan did love her but she did continue to have affairs seemingly with his approval in 1939 with war in europe imminent shegel and egan returned to shergill's paternal home in uttar pradesh india and she started painting again later at the beginning of 1941 the couple moved to lahore and enjoyed life amid a thriving artistic community but during this time shergill began to experiment with three-dimensional forms and some animal subjects the latter probably inspired by her time in bihar known for its elephants and tigers but towards the end of 1941 the confidence in her own painting inspired by these developments began to dissipate it appears from her letters that she felt a sense of weariness and boredom with both her work and her marriage she became very depressed and stopped painting altogether she quickly became gravely ill and she died on the 5th of december 1941 aged just 28. rumors swarmed around the possible cause of her death ranging from a second botched abortion to a jealous eagan poisoning her for her infidelity her mother was convinced egan had murdered her daughter but nothing was ever proved it is perhaps important to remember that it was her aristocratic roots that enabled her to pursue her dream of becoming an artist yet she used the opportunity to dignify the poor communities and the role of women within them in india throughout her paintings her legacy is unparalleled in both her life and art she was a woman both within and ahead of her time to become one of india's most compelling artists of the 20th century there are only 172 paintings documented as having been created by amrita shergill in 1976 the indian government recognized amrita shergill as a national treasure making it illegal to take her artworks out of the country without official permission thank you for watching i hope you've enjoyed the video if you would like to see more of my videos why not subscribe it's free and clicking the little black bell will tell you when my next video is released if you want to support the making of my videos then please check out my patreon channel where you will find lots of interesting rewards in return for your patronage thanks again and i'll see you in the next video goodbye