Avant-garde artist Amrita Sher-Gil’s oil on canvas The Story Teller has unseated Sayed Haider Raza’s Gestation as the most expensive work of Indian art sold at auction worldwide, at a whopping Rs61.8 crore ($10 million).
The 1937 artwork, sold in New Delhi on Saturday at Saffronart’s Evening Sale: Modern Art, was among the more than 70 art pieces by eminent artists including M.F. Husain, V.S. Gaitonde, Jamini Roy and F.S. Souza at the auction.
It was only last month that the 1989 Gestation, also an oil on canvas, was sold at Rs51.75 crore by Pundole’s auction house in Mumbai, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork sold at auction.
“The record price achieved by Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller is an important milestone in the Indian art market and testament to the artist’s immense skill and enduring legacy as one of India’s art treasures,” said Saffronart CEO and co-founder Dinesh Vazirani.
Touted as one of the 12 works selected by Sher-Gil herself as her most important works, The Story Teller is widely considered an example of the artist’s most honest and expressive compositions. The dominant subjects for the eminent artist are women, primarily because she could lend her empathetic self most easily to their condition.
The painting was first exhibited at Sher-Gil’s solo exhibition at Faletti’s Hotel, Lahore, in November 1937.
Her other well-known portraits of women include Three Girls, Women On The Charpai, Hill Women and Young Girls.
Born to an Indian father and Hungarian mother on Jan 30, 1913, in Budapest, Hungary, Sher-Gil came to be known as one of the greatest avant-garde women artists.
From the early age of five, she immersed herself in drawing and painting with watercolour. Her early works consisted of vibrant illustrations of Hungarian fairy tales with captivating characters. In 1921, the Sher-Gil family moved to India and settled in Shimla.
It was there that she honed her observational skills, capturing the essence of those around her through meticulous sketches. She died at the young age of 28 in 1941.
In 1976, Sher-Gil was declared by the Archaeological Survey of India as one of India’s nine National Art Treasure artists.
The auction also smashed a few other records.
Renowned painter and art educator K.K. Hebbar’s 1959 untitled work sold for Rs2.64 crore – more than seven times its estimate. Raza’s monumental work Earth sold for Rs19.2 crore, early expressionist Tyeb Mehta’s Red Figure for Rs9 crore and Souza’s Caribbean Palm for Rs4.56 crore.
Indo-Asian News Service
