Mother India
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | National Gallery Of Modern Art |
| Location History: | None |
Amrita Sher-Gil, an artist who is known for blending European element and Indian culture and folk art that gave Modern India a new wave of element showing the expressive faces of her subject and their languorous poses. 'Mother India' was made by her when she came back to India and saw the misery, suffering of the common people. Her paintings are known for using experimental colours, having the focus on outward appearance of natural form and blending it with natural structure. But as we see in this painting, an Indian peasant mother holding her toddler in one hand with a young girl sitting right beside her for which she used darker shades of terracota to connect it with the Indian folk with faces of her subject steeped in melancholy and with large sad eyes. This picture throws light on the period behind it when India was still under the control of British Raj thus becoming the reason for common people misery, sadness and starvation. The expression created by her shows the complexities, emotions and the cultural perspective of that time and what all misery especially the rural people had to face. The above picture is just a part of a big blocks created by Amrita Sher Gil throwing emphasis on ordinary life of woman, people sufferings and notion prevailing in India during British Raj.