A dark-haired young man in an open white shirt, arms folded, on red

A young man with tousled black hair sits with his arms folded across his chest, his loose white shirt open at the neck, against a ground of scumbled red and orange. His gaze is turned slightly away, the mouth set; the flesh is built in warm ochres and pinks with thick, visible strokes, and the shirt in dragged whites and greys. Signed 'Sher-Gil' in the lower left, this 1930 portrait comes from the artist's student years at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, when she was painting friends and fellow students in the bold, painterly manner that won her the Grand Salon's recognition at nineteen.

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.