Hill Women
| Hill Women | |
|---|---|
 Hill Women on an Indian stamp of 1978 | |
| Artist | Amrita Sher-Gil |
| Year | 1935 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 147.3 cm × 87 cm (58.0 in × 34 in) |
| Preceded by | Hill Men |
Hill Women is an oil on canvas painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil, completed after she painted Hill Men in the winter of 1935 at Simla. Depicting a girl among three young women, it was influenced by the poor surrounding Sher-Gil's home in Simla, India.
The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1936, and later at Hyderabad that year. Sher-Gil picked it for display at her One Man Show in Lahore in 1937. In 1978, it appeared on an Indian postage stamp.
Composition[edit]
Hill Women is an oil on canvas painting measuring 89 cm by 147.3 cm, depicting a girl among three young women.[1][2] The work accompanied Sher-Gil's painting titled Hill Men, originally called Villagers in Winter.[3] Both were completed in the winter of 1935, and influenced by the poor surrounding Sher-Gil's home in Simla.[4]
According to Sher-Gil, generally she was not attempting to narrate any story in such paintings, but wished them to be "purely pictorial", claiming that she did not like "cheap emotional appeal".[5] The sad open-eyed faced figures appear in black-green, each looking inwards.[4] Their bodies are elongated and appear thin.[5] The lips in one figure are seen to be pouting.[6] Near the centre is a dark-faced child wrapped in a light shawl, and placed on a dark background.[3] Three dark faces appear on a light background.[3] The woman in the centre has one hand placed on the child's shoulder.[3] Another is holding a terracotta pot.[3] Draperies in the picture flow in curves at the top of the painting and in vertical drops to the ground.[3]
Exhibits[edit]
Hill Women was exhibited, along with Hill Men, at the Paris Salon in 1936 when it received a mention in French newspapers.[7] Later that year, it was shown at Hyderabad with a sale price of ₹2,500.[8] There, it was admired by Sarojini Naidu, who tried to persuade the Museum of Hyderabad to acquire the painting.[8] According to Sher-Gil's note to her mother, Akbar Hydari of the museum "got frightened by the prices" of her work and changed his mind about purchasing any of them.[8] In 1937, it was number four of her paintings displayed at her One Man Show in Lahore, at a reduced price at ₹1,500, but did not sell.[2]
Interpretation and response[edit]
Hill Women is generally considered one of Sher-Gil's well-liked paintings.[9] The historians Yashodhara Dalmia and Giles Tillotson call it one of her most important pieces and a masterpiece.[3][4] Dalmia points out that the subjects of the painting may appear poor, thin and sad, but they have "grace and dignity".[5] She puts the pouting lips down to reflecting Sher-Gil's own sensuous reflection of herself.[6] What strikes Tillotson is "their doleful expressions", appearing as "tombstones" and "detached from each other", yet "bound in a group".[3][10] He calls the resting hand on the shoulder a "gesture of protection", while there is a "carefully contrived play of light and dark masses".[3] The art critic and friend of Sher-Gil, Charles Fabri, describes the rounded figures as created by shadows, with Sher-Gil showing "complete lack of concern with the source or direction of light".[11]
Katalin Keserü, who curated several Sher-Gil exhibitions, notes that along with Hill Men, Boy with Lemon, and Women, Hill Women is "static", and features lonely "figures looking far out of the picture".[12] Her interpretation has been that these "were the representatives of India Amrita needed".[12] The painter K. G. Subramanyan classes Hill Women with Hill Men and Three Girls, where the figures are grouped "in sharp silhouette against plain backgrounds".[13]
In 1978, Hill Women appeared on an Indian postage stamp.[14] The painting belongs to the private collection of Vivan Sundaram and Navina Sundaram, Delhi.[15]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Haupt, Christina (2016). Amrita Sher-Gil and the representations of non-western female bodies. Norderstedt: Grin. pp. 5–7. ISBN 978-3-6684-887-7-9.
- ^ a b Sundaram, p. 418
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Tillotson, G.H.R. (1997). "A Painter of Concern: Critical Writings on Amrita Sher-Gil". India International Centre Quarterly. 24 (4): 57–72. ISSN 0376-9771. JSTOR 23002294.
- ^ a b c Dalmia, pp. 73-75
- ^ a b c Dalmia, Yashodhara (2014). "7. Transformation of the pre-modern to the modern in early twentieth-century Indian art". In Dalmia, Yashodhara (ed.). Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader. Oxford University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-19-809886-7.
- ^ a b Dalmia, pp. 57-58
- ^ Sundaram, pp. 242-243
- ^ a b c Sundaram, p. 278
- ^ Singh, N Iqbal (1975). "Amrita Sher-Gil". India International Centre Quarterly. 2 (3): 209–217. ISSN 0376-9771. JSTOR 23001838.
- ^ Tillotson, Giles (2014). "9. A painter of concern: critical writings on Amrita Sher-Gill". In Dalmia, Yashodhara (ed.). Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader. Oxford University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-19-809886-7.
- ^ Fabri, Charles (2014). "2. Notes towards a biography of Amrita Sher-Gil". In Dalmia, Yashodhara (ed.). Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader. Oxford University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-19-809886-7.
- ^ a b Keserü, Katalin (2014). "8. Amrita Sher-Gil: the Indian painter and her French and Hungarian connections". In Dalmia, Yashodhara (ed.). Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader. Oxford University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-19-809886-7.
- ^ Subramanyan, K. G. (2014). "5. Amrita Sher-Gil and the east-west dilemma". In Dalmia, Yashodhara (ed.). Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader. Oxford University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-19-809886-7.
- ^ "Indian Postage Stamps - Stamps released in 1978". www.indianpostagestamps.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ Sundaram, p. 804
Bibliography[edit]
- Ananth, Deepak (2007). Amrita Sher-Gil: An Indian Artist Family of the Twentieth Century. Schirmer/Mosel. ISBN 978-3-8295-0270-2.
- Dalmia, Yashodhara (2013). Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life. Gurugram: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-342026-2.
- Sundaram, Vivan (2010). Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self-Portrait in Letters and Writings. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Tulika Books. pp. 1–417. ISBN 978-81-89487-59-1.
- Sundaram, Vivan (2010). Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self-Portrait in Letters and Writings. Vol. 2. New Delhi: Tulika Books. pp. 418–821. ISBN 978-81-89487-59-1.