Young Girls | |
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Artist | Amrita Sher-Gil |
Year | 1932 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 164 cm × 133 cm (65 in × 52 in) |
Location | National Gallery of Modern Art at Jaipur House, New Delhi |
Owner | Government of India |
Followed by | Professional Model |
Young Girls is an oil on canvas painting created by Amrita Sher-Gil in 1932 in Paris. It was awarded a gold medal at the 1933 Paris Salon and earned Sher-Gil an associate membership of that institution. It is a national art treasure under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972), and is held at the National Gallery of Modern Art at Jaipur House, New Delhi.
As a child, Sher-Gil was encouraged by her uncle, Ervin Baktay, to carefully observe the reality around her and transfer it to her work. She was studying art at Beaux-Arts de Paris, when she painted Young Girls. Set in an affluent home, it depicts two women in close conversation modelled on her sister and a friend. The dark woman is positioned upright and the light skin woman is slouched, with her blonde hair partially covering a naked breast.
Several commentators have seen the painting as reflecting Sher-Gil's divided identity: Indian, European, colonial subject, and female.