ArtistAmrita Sher-Gil
Year1934
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions90 cm × 56 cm (35 in × 22 in)
LocationKiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi

Self-Portrait as a Tahitian is an oil painting on canvas created in 1934 by Amrita Sher-Gil, when she was studying in Paris. It is held in the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India. Under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972) the work is a national art treasure and must stay in India.

Amrita Sher-Gil

Amrita Sher-Gil with three paintings, including two self-portraits in Paris

Amrita Sher-Gil (1913 - 1941) was born in Hungary to an Indian aristocrat and his Hungarian wife, an opera singer.[1] After the First World War the family moved to Shimla, India.[2][3] There, she was influenced by her uncle, Ervin Baktay, who encouraged her to carefully observe the reality around her and transfer it to her work, particularly using live models.[2] At his suggestion the family moved to Paris so that 16-year old Sher-Gil could study art, first at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and later the Beaux-Arts de Paris.[4] Her mentors included Pierre Henri Vaillant and Lucien Simon.[4] In all, Sher-Gil completed 19 self-portraits while in Paris.[5]

Origin and composition

Self-Portrait as a Tahitian is an oil painting on canvas created in 1934 by Sher-Gil, while she was studying at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.[6] It was first exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries, and was Sher-Gil's last painting completed in Paris before returning to India at the end of 1934.[5][7] It measures 90 cm by 56 cm, and is held in the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India.[6]

The painting is a self-portrait depicting Sher-Gil in partial nudity.[5] A plain white cloth is wrapped around her lower body, leaving her slightly protruding abdomen, full body breasts and crossed arms naked.[5] She appears standing in the shadow of a man, with smaller Japanese figures in the background.[8] Her body is varying shades of brown, and her long straight hair is casually tied back.[5] A deep red is used to colour the slightly smirked lips.[5] Her posture is turned a little so that she is looking away from the viewer.[5]

Influences

Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin's Faa Iheihe (1898)

In 1933 Sher-Gil visited the Tate in London, where she was influenced by Paul Gauguin's Faa Iheihe (1898).[9][10] In contrast to Sher-Gil's portrayal of herself as a Tahitian, Gauguin’s Tahitians are more elaborately dressed, are decorated with flowers, and typically appear as seductive women on a tropical landscape.[11]

Vincent van Gogh

Sher-Gil was also influenced by how Vincent van Gogh presented identity and Japonisme.[5][12] During her visit to the Tate, her father noted that she gazed at van Gogh's painting of a chair for some significant time.[3]

Paula Modersohn-Becker

Self-Portrait at 6th Wedding Anniversary (1906)

Like Paula Modersohn-Becker's Self-Portrait at 6th Wedding Anniversary Self-Portrait As Tahitian depicts a woman with early signs of pregnancy through her slightly rounded abdomen and full breasts.[13] Sher-Gil had also been pregnant, and been through two termination of pregnancies.[13] The painting by Modersohn-Becker was likely familiar to her.[13]

Reception and interpretation

The painting is considered a tribute to Gauguin, with a combination of east and west, and where Sher-Gil sees herself as "the exotic other".[8][14] It brings the issue of "race" to attention.[15] Philosopher Nalini Bhushan sees Sher-Gil as depicting the Indian part of herself, with the Tahitian representing the perfectly appearing non-European.[8] Bhushan calls the shadow a "voyeur".[8]

In Sonal Khullar's view it "theatricalizes the relationship of French masters to the Orient" and "combines and confuses areas of the world: Oceania, the Orient, and the Occident".[7]

According to D. Fairchild Ruggles, in this painting, Sher-Gil "claims a history and culture for herself".[16] Pradeep A. Dhillon considers it of "eternal significance".[17]

Sonali Mathur, in her article based solely on this Sher-Gil painting, argues "that Self-Portrait as Tahitian conceals a deep engagement with the strategies of self- portraiture and acts of masquerade undertaken by both Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh in the late 1880s, in preparation for their famous collaboration in Arles".[5]

Legacy

The work is a national art treasure under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972).[18] As such, it must remain in India and may only leave the country with permission from the Indian Central Government.[18]

The painting appears on the front cover of Vivan Sundaram's biography of Sher-Gil.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dalmia, pp-1-16
  2. 1 2 Dalmia, pp.17-25
  3. 1 2 Singh, N Iqbal (1975). "Amrita Sher-Gil". India International Centre Quarterly. 2 (3): 209–217. ISSN 0376-9771.
  4. 1 2 Dalmia, pp.26-44
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mathur, Saloni (March 2011). "A Retake of Sher-Gil's Self-Portrait as Tahitian". Critical Inquiry. 37 (3): 515–544. doi:10.1086/659356.
  6. 1 2 Zahra, Orin (8 September 2022). "Amrita Sher-Gil, Self-Portrait as a Tahitian". The Centre for Public Art History. Archived from the original on 11 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  7. 1 2 Khullar, Sonal (2015). "2. An art of the soil: Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941)". Worldly Affiliations: Artistic Practice, National Identity, and Modernism in India, 1930 1990. University of California Press. pp. 49–56. ISBN 978-0-520-28367-1.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Bhushan, Nalini (2020). "19. Amrita Sher-Gil: identity and integrity as a mixed-race woman artist in colonial India". In Alston, Charlotte; Carpenter, Amber; Wiseman, Rachael (eds.). Portraits of Integrity: 26 Case Studies from History, Literature and Philosophy. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 195–206. ISBN 978-1-350-04039-7.
  9. ↑ Hodge, Susie (2021). Artistic Circles: The Inspiring Connections Between the World's Greatest Artists. Frances Lincoln. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7112-5586-9.
  10. ↑ "'Faa Iheihe', Paul Gauguin, 1898". Tate. Archived from the original on 17 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  11. ↑ "Behind Sher-Gil's 'Tahitian'". www.international.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  12. ↑ Shaikh, Nageen (30 January 2023). "A New Sourcebook of Indian Art". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 25 November 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 Shaw-Johnson, Amanda (2021). Why Now?: The Euro-U.S. Canon Adopts Tarsila do Amaral and Amrita Sher-Gil Almost 90 Years Later (Thesis). University of California Davis: ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
  14. ↑ Priyanka, Prachi (July 2022). "Amalgamation of East and West in the Art of Amrita Sher-Gil". Journal of International Women's Studies. Bridgewater State University. 24 (3).
  15. ↑ Bhushan, Nalini; Garfield, Jay L. (2011). "3. 2. Vivekananda: Anana Yoga (2015)". Indian Philosophy in English: From Renaissance to Independence. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-19-976926-1.
  16. 1 2 Ruggles, D. Fairchild (2014). "7. Thinking through pictures: a Kantian reading of Amrita Sher-Gil's Self Portrait as Tahitian". Woman's Eye, Woman's Hand: Making Art and Architecture in Modern India. Zubaan. pp. 160–164. ISBN 978-93-83074-78-5.
  17. ↑ Dhillon, Pradeep A. (2016). "8. Naturalising aesthetics: moderate formalism and global education". In Joldersma, Clarence W. (ed.). Neuroscience and Education: A Philosophical Appraisal. New York: Routledge. pp. 128–142. ISBN 978-1-317-62311-3.
  18. 1 2 The Protection of Movable Cultural Property: Compendium of Legislative Texts. Unesco. 1984. p. 167. ISBN 978-92-3-101638-7.

Bibliography


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