Amrita Sher-Gil's painting The Story Teller auctioned at a record $ 7.4 million
The Story Teller
A painting by Amrita Sher-Gil, one of the India's most renowned artists,has been auctioned at $7.4 million. This is the highest price achieved by an Indian artist to date. Sher-Gil's artwork titled The Story Teller was made in 1937.
SaffronArt, the auction house, organised the sale on Saturday night. In a page dedicated to the artwork, SaffronArt said the legendary artist sought to explore the realm of domestic life in The Story Teller.
"The sale of this particular work is an important milestone in the market. However, equally important, is the work itself - it is an exceptional painting as a cornerstone in Sher-Gil's work as such. She is one of India's national art treasures, and this type of work is quite rare to come across for sale," said Minal Vazirani, the auction house's co-founder.
Sher-Gil's works have been auctioned for 84 times before this. Her oldest auction recorded on MutualArt for the painting Village Group was sold by Sotheby's back in 1992.
About Amrita Sher-Gil
She was born in Budapest to an Indian father and a Hungarian mother. Her father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, belonged to an aristocratic family in Punjab and was a scholar of Sanskrit and Persian.Sher-Gil's mother Marie Antoinette was a Hungarian national and trained opera singer.
Sher-Gil showed interest in painting and drawing at the age of five. Her early works, in watercolours, showed vibrant illustrations of Hungarian fairy tales with captivating characters.
The Sher-Gil family came to India in 1921 and settled in Shimla. Amrita Sher-Gil died in 1941, at the age of 28.
