Amrita Sher-Gil: Rebel with a Paintbrush

By Anita Vachharajani

An artist? A dreamer? A rebel? Who exactly was Amrita Sher-Gil? She was a little bit of all these things, really. Amrita grew up with a great sense of mischief and adventure in two very different worlds, in a village near Budapest, Hungary, and among the cool, green hills of colonial Simla. She defied headmistresses, teachers, art critics and royalty to make her own determined way in the world of grown-ups and art.Join her on a journey through her life, a journey that takes her family through World Wars and political turmoil as they travel in pursuit of love, a home and a modern, artistic education for Amrita!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harper Children's
• Release date: May 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9789352774746

Anita Vachharajani

Anita Vachharajani grew up in Mumbai. Her stories have appeared in The Puffin Book of Bedtime Stories, The Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories, and in various picture books, such as Nonie's Magic Quilt and Nayana and the Not-so-scary Owl. Her translations of traditional rhymes feature in The Tenth Rasa: The Penguin Book of Indian Nonsense Verse. Anita loves writing non-fiction.

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1

1857 to 1912

a LITTLE HISTORY

After the Anglo-Sikh War of 1848, the Sikh generals from Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s old army were exiled and their lands were taken away by the British. During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, many Sikh generals supported the British. Surat Singh was one such officer. For his loyalty, the British gave him land in Punjab, and in Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh). Surat Singh died in 1881, leaving his sons—Umrao and Sunder—under his friend’s guardianship. Umrao was married to Narinder Kaur, his guardian’s daughter, at the age of 13. They had four children, but sadly, Narinder died in 1907.

DULEEP SINGH

When Maharaja Ranjit Singh died in 1839, his vast and powerful Sikh Empire began to fall apart. In 1843, his five-year-old son Duleep Singh, was placed on the throne of Punjab. Duleep’s mother, Maharani Jindan Kaur, was the regent (the real ruler). Three years later, his mother was imprisoned and Duleep was separated from her. In 1849, the British took over the throne. Duleep left for England in 1854, where he became friends with Queen Victoria and her children. He was allowed to meet his mother again when he was 23 years old.

Duleep married Bamba Müller and they had six children, one of whom was named Bamba Sofia Jindan (‘Bamba’ means ‘pink’ in Arabic). Years later, Duleep tried to go to India and regain his throne. He joined an underground movement in France against the British, and died in 1893 in Paris.

Princess Bamba Sophia Jindan, 1887

Umrao was 37 years old when Narinder died. He decided to visit London again for a change of scene. On a previous visit there, Umrao and Narinder had met Maharaja Duleep Singh’s three daughters, the Princesses Bamba, Sophia and Catherine. They quickly became friends and realized that they all shared links with the past – both Umrao’s and Narinder’s fathers had been a part of Bamba’s grandfather’s army!

Umrao met his old friends in 1907. When he returned to India, Princess Bamba decided to visit Lahore, the land of her ancestors. But in 1910, taking a long journey alone across oceans was not considered proper for a wealthy young woman. So she placed an advertisement in a newspaper seeking a companion, a lady who shared her interests and was willing to join her on a great adventure – to travel all the way to distant India.

A Hungarian pianist replied to the advertisement. Her name was Marie Antoinette Gottesmann-Erdöbaktay (1881–1949). Bamba and Marie got along well, and decided to travel together.

The young women set off for Lahore, an important cultural centre in North India. In that exciting city of artists and poets, Bamba met Umrao again. He introduced her to his large group of friends, which included Muhammed Iqbal, the famous poet. Perhaps Bamba would have liked to marry Umrao. Accompanied by Marie Antoinette, she made many trips to Lahore.

Marie Antoinette was a charming young woman. She was cheerful, attractive, and a talented pianist as well. Many of Umrao’s friends were drawn to her. Umrao and Marie Antoinette fell deeply in love. They were married in Lahore in February 1912.

LAHORE – Paris of the East

The ancient city of Lahore was the capital of the vast Punjab region for centuries – it had had Hindu, Muslim, Mughal and Sikh rulers. Lahore was not the capital of India during the British rule, but it was a progressive and modern city. Lahore bustled with cultural and political activity. It was a ‘melting pot’ of many cultures – people from different parts of India made it their home. More importantly, many freedom fighters, poets, musicians, playwrights and painters lived there.

Both Marie Antoinette and Umrao were interesting people, with very different personalities and talents. Marie Antoinette came from a large, upper-class, artistic family. Her father, Raoul Gottesmann, was a Christian of French-Hungarian descent and her mother, Antónia Levys-Martonfalvy, was a Jew. The family used to be very wealthy, and though they were not so well-off any more, the children were given a good education. Marie Antoinette spoke Hungarian, French and Italian. She also painted, sang and played the piano beautifully.

And Umrao? Well, he loved yoga, philosophy, poetry, translation, astronomy, calligraphy and carpentry. He was a strict vegetarian and a craftsman who enjoyed building things and tinkering with machines.

Umrao was obsessed with one hobby in particular, and that was the exciting new science of photography. It was laborious and expensive in those days, because the technology to shoot pictures and print them was still very new.

UMRAO SINGH SHER-GIL the photographer

Umrao Singh (1870–1954) was an avid photographer. He bought a camera in the 1890s and taught himself photography. He read up a lot on photography and bought over 40 books on the subject (we know this because he kept a careful account of the hundreds of books he owned!).

Umrao took pictures of himself, his wife and their children, relatives and friends. His 1,500 photographs tell us about life in the late 1880s and the early 1900s. Umrao experimented with different photographic techniques. He was one of the few people in India to have shot photos using autochromes—coloured glass plates—in the 1920s.

Umrao Sher-Gil admired Leo Tolstoy, the Russian writer and thinker, and Mahatma Gandhi. In fact, when he was older, he even had his clothes stitched to look like Tolstoy’s. He hated injustice and protested against it as best he could. Unlike other members of his family who supported the British, Umrao supported India’s fight for freedom.

Umrao and Marie Antoinette built a warm, lovely life together, and for a long time, they were quite happy.

2

1912 to 1914

in BUDAPEST

If you ever travel to Budapest in Hungary, go to the banks of the River Danube, and ask someone for the way to Szilágyi Dezsó Square. Look out for a pentagon-shaped Protestant Church on the Square. Across the road from the Church is Building no 4, which has two marble plaques nailed on it.

One of the plaques says that Béla Bartók, the famous Hungarian musician and pianist lived there briefly in the 1920s. The other plaque says that the Hungarian-Indian painter, Amrita Sher-Gil, was born in an apartment in the building on 30 January 1913.

But how did the Sher-Gils get to Budapest all the way from Lahore?

Soon after they were married in 1912, Umrao and Marie Antoinette left for Hungary. They stayed in Budapest with Marie Antoinette’s sister Blanka for a little while. Later they moved across the River Danube to Building no 4. And that’s where their first daughter was born, on a snowy, frosty day.

Marie Antoinette wrote in her diary:

‘… A bracing, cold wind from the frozen Danube whistles … the windows are covered with hoar frost.

Intricate patterns, like flowers or pointed stars, have ranged themselves on the windowpanes … The nurse brought me the little bundle wrapped in a soft, warm eiderdown quilt … At the lovely sight, my heart gave a throb … A new being had appeared on earth.’

The baby was named Amrita after Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs. She was also given a Hungarian name, Dalma. In March 1914, Amrita’s sister, Indira, was born.

BUDAPEST

Budapest,