Self-Portrait as a Tahitian: Difference between revisions

 

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==Origin and composition==

==Origin and composition==

”Self-Portrait as a Tahitian” is an [[oil painting]] on [[canvas]] created in 1934 by Sher-Gil, while she was studying at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.{{cite web |last1=Zahra |first1=Orin |title=Amrita Sher-Gil, Self-Portrait as a Tahitian |url=https://smarthistory.org/amrita-sher-gil-self-portrait-tahitian/ |publisher=The Centre for Public Art History |access-date=11 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111070752/https://smarthistory.org/amrita-sher-gil-self-portrait-tahitian/ |archive-date=11 November 2023 |date=8 September 2022}} It was exhibited at the [[Salon des Tuileries]], and was Sher-Gil’s last painting completed in Paris before returning to India at the end of 1934.{{cite book |last1=Khullar |first1=Sonal |title=Worldly Affiliations: Artistic Practice, National Identity, and Modernism in India, 1930 1990 |date=2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28367-1 |pages=49–56|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5o0kDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 |language=en |chapter=2. An art of the soil: Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941)}} In April 1934, she wrote to Denise Proutaux that she was allowed to exhibit five paintings at the Salon, and being the last chance to, as the return to India was planned for later that year, she hoped to send her ”Self-Portrait as a Tahitian” along with the 1932 portrait of ”[[Young Man with Apples|Boris with Apples]]”, and it did.Sundaram, pp. 130-135{{cite book |last1=Higgie |first1=Jennifer |title=The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits |date=2021 |publisher=Hachette |isbn=978-1-4746-1380-4 |page=190 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFfiDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT190 |language=en}} Sher-Gil wrote “they will go well together, a good contrast: with one in blues and yellows (it’s a nude you do not know, I started it after you left), and the other in harmony of pink and white.”

”Self-Portrait as a Tahitian” is an [[oil painting]] on [[canvas]] created in 1934 by Sher-Gil, while she was studying at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.{{cite web |last1=Zahra |first1=Orin |title=Amrita Sher-Gil, Self-Portrait as a Tahitian |url=https://smarthistory.org/amrita-sher-gil-self-portrait-tahitian/ |publisher=The Centre for Public Art History |access-date=11 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111070752/https://smarthistory.org/amrita-sher-gil-self-portrait-tahitian/ |archive-date=11 November 2023 |date=8 September 2022}} It was exhibited at the [[Salon des Tuileries]], and was Sher-Gil’s last painting completed in Paris before returning to India at the end of 1934.{{cite book |last1=Khullar |first1=Sonal |title=Worldly Affiliations: Artistic Practice, National Identity, and Modernism in India, 1930 1990 |date=2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28367-1 |pages=49–56|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5o0kDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 |language=en |chapter=2. An art of the soil: Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941)}} In April 1934, she wrote to Denise Proutaux that she was allowed to exhibit five paintings at the Salon, and being the last chance to, as the return to India was planned for later that year, she hoped to send her ”Self-Portrait as a Tahitian” along with the 1932 portrait of ”[[Young Man with Apples]]”, and it did.Sundaram, pp. 130-135{{cite book |last1=Higgie |first1=Jennifer |title=The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits |date=2021 |publisher=Hachette |isbn=978-1-4746-1380-4 |page=190 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFfiDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT190 |language=en}} Sher-Gil wrote “they will go well together, a good contrast: with one in blues and yellows (it’s a nude you do not know, I started it after you left), and the other in harmony of pink and white.”

It measures 90 cm by 56 cm, and is held in the [[Kiran Nadar Museum of Art]], India. The painting is a [[self-portrait]] depicting Sher-Gil in partial nudity. A plain white cloth is wrapped around her lower body, leaving her slightly protruding abdomen, full body breasts and crossed arms naked. She appears standing in the shadow of a man, with smaller Japanese figures in the background.{{cite book |last1=Bhushan |first1=Nalini |editor1-last=Alston |editor1-first=Charlotte |editor2-last=Carpenter |editor2-first=Amber |editor3-last=Wiseman |editor3-first=Rachael |title=Portraits of Integrity: 26 Case Studies from History, Literature and Philosophy |date=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-1-350-04039-7 |chapter=19. Amrita Sher-Gil: identity and integrity as a mixed-race woman artist in colonial India|pages=195–206 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qcrPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 |language=en }} Her body is varying shades of…