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Amrita Sher-Gil, The Last Unfinished Painting, 1941

Unfinished

Amrita Sher-Gil, The Last Unfinished Painting

Lahore, 1941 · oil on canvas

Left unfinished. She died that December, aged 28.

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On the record

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Raja Ravi VarmaVasantikac. 1910 · oleograph, printed after his deathPrinted by the thousand.
Kalighat, CalcuttaTrivikramapada (Vishnu’s three steps)19th centuryPainted for pilgrims at Kalighat.
Attributed to GovardhanAbul Fazl presents the Akbarnamac. 1603–05 · MughalPainted after Abul Fazl was killed.
Company schoolA woman and two attendantsc. 1820Indian painters, British patrons.
Abanindranath TagoreFrom his Arabian Nights series1930The Bengal School’s founder, at play.

Your first work

Guide soon

Buy what you'd still want on your wall in twenty years. The rest is homework.

  1. Look at a lot before you buy anythingMuseums, galleries, art schools' degree shows.
  2. Know original from printLook closely: paint has texture, most prints show dots. Ask which edition.
  3. Ask for the paperworkA bill, the artist's name, where it came from.
  4. Start with paperDrawings, prints and watercolours. A gentler start.

Stories

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Printmaking

The press that put gods on every wall

How Ravi Varma’s oleographs reached homes no painting ever had.

How to look

Turn the painting over

Labels, stamps and stretcher marks: the back often says more than the front.

Kalighat

Souvenirs, now in museums

What pilgrims carried home from Calcutta.

Where to see it

Galleries, fairs and events soon
Kiran Nadar Museum of ArtNew Delhi
Museum of Art & PhotographyBengaluru
National Gallery of Modern ArtNew Delhi · Mumbai · Bengaluru
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu SangrahalayaMumbai
Indian MuseumKolkata
Salar Jung MuseumHyderabad

Kinds of Indian art

MughalRajputPahariCompany schoolKalighatTanjorePichwaiMadhubaniGondWarliBengal SchoolProgressivesBaroda SchoolContemporaryPrintsPhotography

Artists

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Abanindranath Tagore
Akbar Padamsee
Amrita Sher-Gil
Arpita Singh
Bhupen Khakhar
F N Souza
Ganesh Pyne
Jamini Roy
K G Subramanyan
M F Husain
Nandalal Bose
Raja Ravi Varma
Ram Kumar
S H Raza
Tyeb Mehta
V S Gaitonde
chan·cer·y noun
an office that keeps records.
ArtChancery
one for Indian art.

The Record

One letter a week. A work, a story, a question answered.

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