Amrita Sher-Gil – Self portrait at the age of 18 (1931). UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £1,762,500
A 1931 self-portrait by Amrita Sher-Gil, depicting one of India’s most important modern artists at the age of 18, comes up at Christie’s in London on June 10. This is the first painting by the artist ever to be offered in London, and one of only eight canvases by Sher-Gil to be offered at auction. It is the only known profile self portrait by the artist. It is estimated at £1-1.8 million.
Born in Budapest in 1913 to a Hungarian mother and an India father Sher-Gil was a tour de force in the landscape of modernism in British India. In her brief 28 years she lived between India, Hungary and France. She painted the life of people and her surroundings with an intensity that remains unparalleled in modern Indian art. In Paris she was elected as an associate of the Grand Salon, a rare honor at the time for a young, foreign artist, as a result of the power of her portraits. Most of her work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. This self portrait is one of her undiscovered paintings and it has remained in France since the time it was painted.
UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £1,762,500