Brahmacharis
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi, India. |
| Location History: | Brahmacharis by Amrita Sher-Gil was completed in May 1937 at the family home in Shimla, India. The colossal canvas was sent for its first public exhibition in Lahore later that year, after which it was priced for sale for a sum of Rs. 1,500. It remained in private possession in the family collection until 1948, after the artist’s untimely death in 1941. Through a combination of parental gifts and direct intervention from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, it was then gifted to the state to mark a new era of cultural legacy. Finally, it arrived at its current location in the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi in 1954. It became firmly fixed in its current location in 1976, when Government of India declared Sher-Gil a National Treasure Artist. This designation offers maximum legal protection for the artist’s reputation, and all her paintings are now considered priceless national antiquities that cannot be sold or exported. |
Brahmacharis is Amrita Sher-Gil’s oil on canvas masterpiece, painted in May 1937, and is considered to be one of the three pivotal pictures in the South Indian Trilogy, along with Bride’s Toilet and South Indian Villagers Going to Market. The work depicts a group of five young Brahman ascetics, or students, clad in white dhotis, set against the bright red-ochre ground, which gives the picture its solemn and pensive mood. The image in the center is the most prominent, as the man wears a sacred thread (janeu) and a distinctive Vaishnavite mark on his forehead, and his look seems lost in thought. Sher-Gil’s line of painting has changed considerably, as she moves from purely Parisian academic realism toward a more regional aestheticism, using the elongated forms and clear outlines of the ancient Ajanta cave figures. At the same time, the simple colors and almost geometric shapes suggest close ties to the European Post-Impressionists, especially Gauguin, as she uses some primitiveness in the rendering of her models. The facial features of the ascetics are also given special attention, as their skin tones are different, which adds a unique character to each of the men portrayed in the picture. Overall, Sher-Gil makes a step back from the purely decorative trends, trying to emphasize the dignity and nobility of the poor village ascetics, combining Western methods of figure painting and Indian miniature techniques.
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