In 1937 after journeying through southern India, Amrita Sher-Gil began to reacquaint herself with the latter half of her Hungarian-Indian identity. While early works, like the Gauguin-esque <em>Self-Portrait</em> (1930), reflected her Parisian studies she remained unfulfilled, believing (as did her mentor Lucien Simon) that her artistic development lay in India<sup>1</sup>. “Europe,” she said, “belongs to Picasso, Matisse and many others, India belongs only to me”.<sup>2</sup><br><br><em>Village Scene</em> (1938) depicts the everyday life of ordinary Indians, reflecting her ambition to “be, through the medium of line, color, and design, an interpreter of the life of the people.”<sup>3</sup> Yet, her style embodied Post-Impressionism in its focus on form, line and colour to express the raw emotions of her subjects, a departure from traditional Indian sentimental artistry.<br><br>In the <em>Bride’s Toilet</em> (1937), depicting the rituals of pre-marriage preening, the dull background is characteristic of Ajanta cave paintings and the composition: of Indian miniatures. The lengthened figures invoke Modigliani and the colours possess a van Gogh-inspired vibrancy, successfully infusing Indian artistic traditions with Western oil painting techniques.<br><br>This was in stark contrast to the pale watercolours and romanticised figures of her contemporaries of the Bengal school who attempted to recapture the quintessential Indian artistry of the pre-colonial era, which Sher Gil felt had a “crippling effect on the creative spirit”<sup>4</sup>. <br><br>Her fusion of Eastern and Western styles reflected the emerging landscape: a cultural India wedded to Western influences, mirroring her dual identity and showing “a living people in a living language”<sup>5</sup>.<br>