Five brahmacharis in white sit against a wall of deep red

Five young brahmacharis sit cross-legged in a shallow frieze against a deep crimson wall: at the centre a fair-skinned youth in ochre with a sacred thread and sect-mark raises one hand as he speaks, flanked by companions in white dhotis — one dark and moustached, one seen from behind, one resting his chin on his hand, a boy at the edge listening in profile. Signed and dated May 1937, it is the second canvas of the South Indian trilogy, painted after Sher-Gil's journey to Cape Comorin — the work in which she said she had finally 'found her artistic mission': to paint Indian life monumentally, from within.

Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) was born in Budapest to a Sikh aristocrat and a Hungarian opera singer, trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and returned to India in 1934 determined to paint the country's people rather than its picturesque surface. In the seven years left to her she fused the flat colour and frontal stillness of Ajanta murals and Pahari miniatures with the Post-Impressionist lessons of Gauguin and Cézanne, producing the foundation of modern Indian painting. She died in Lahore at twenty-eight; her work is declared a National Art Treasure by the Government of India and is held chiefly by the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.