The little girl in blue

Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) was a pioneering Hungarian-Indian artist and a cornerstone of modern Indian painting. She was formally trained in Paris. Amrita returned to India at the end of 1934 with her parents when she was 21 years old. This painting depicts Lalit Kaur Mann (Babette Singh Mann), who was Sher-Gil's 8-year-old neighbour; her mother Buta Singh lived next door to Amrita's paternal uncle Sunder Singh. 92-year-old Babette recalled sitting three to four times for this painting. Her mother was telling her not to move. But when the painting was finished, Buta Singh didn't like it because it was not realistic enough and Babette was not looking fair enough. Then Amrita replied, "If you wanted a replica then you needed a photographer." Amrita told her that she would reuse the canvas, but instead she kept it. Later, it debuted publicly at her first solo exhibition at Faletti's Hotel in Lahore in 1937. Then this painting was acquired by the art critic Charles Fabri and remained hidden for over 80 years before surfacing at a Sotheby's Mumbai auction in November 2018, where it sold for around $2.54 million to $2.67 million US dollars. Under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act 1972, it is classified as a national art treasure, meaning it cannot be permanently exported out of India.