Amrita Sher-Gil is known for her artwork that blends Indian artforms with Western, rightly getting her the tag of the ‘Indian Frida Kahlo’. The artist is again all over the news, thanks to her recent artwork titled ‘In the Ladies’ Enclosure’. 

The artist’s ‘In the Ladies Enclosure’ became the second most expensive Indian artwork sold internationally, after selling for a whopping Rs 37.8 crore at Saffronart’s recent Summer Live Auction.  Furthermore, the sale of the painting has broken the record for the highest value achieved by the artist in the auction.

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Saffronart CEO and co-founder Dinesh Vazirani released a statement saying, “The record-breaking sale of Amrita Sher-Gil’s seminal painting is a clear indication of her artistic merit and is a testament to her skill and talent. The work highlights her growth and development as an artist and is a culmination of years of coming into her own as an artist of repute.” 

He further added, “It is, additionally, a rare work of the artist from that particular period to emerge in the art market and we are honoured to have played a part in creating a new benchmark with this auction.” 

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Second to the most expensive Indian artwork of  V S Gaitonde’s Untitled, that fetched Rs 39.98 crores in March this year, ‘In the Ladies Enclosure’ was created at Amrita Sher-Gil’s family estate in Gorakhpur, showing a group of women engrossed in activities in a field in a rural area. The painting is 1938 oil on canvas. 

Who is Amrita Sher-Gil?

Amrita Sher-girl was born to Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, a Sikh scholar and a photographer and Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, Hungarian-Jewish opera singer. The artist has often been called “one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century”. Owing to her studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1929 and exposure to a myriad of cultures during her travel in France, Turkey and India, her artform is an aesthetic blend of traditional and western. 

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Her work went on to be critically acclaimed and lauded so much that the Government of India declared her art pieces as National Art Treasures, housing over 100 of them in the Delhi-based National Gallery of Modern Art.