Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) was a prominent Indian painter born to a Punjabi Sikh father and a

Hungarian Jewish mother. She was born in Budapest and spent her early childhood there before the
family relocated to India. Sher-Gil trained in Paris and was influenced by such painters as Cezanne and
Gauguin. Her style and subjects demonstrate quite a range, from French academic style to a
traditionalist aesthetic, from a minimal painting of elephants to an elaborate nude portrait. Sher-Gil's
mission was, in her own words, "to interpret the life of Indians and particularly the poor Indians
pictorially; to paint those silent images of infinite submission and patience,... to reproduce on canvas the
impression those sad eyes created on me." Three Girls is certainly in furtherance of that mission. The
painting shows these young girls in contemplation of their futures and the limited choices that lay ahead
for them. They are dressed brightly and their faces are rendered quite beautifully, but their sadness is
evident. Sher-Gil always portrayed women with great strength of spirit, despite the difficult lives they so
often faced. These three girls are not depicted with any surroundings or context, but their situation is
made quite clear. Whether their marriages are imminent or not, they all face the same future over
which they have no control. Sher-Gil conveys their emotions with every aspect of the painting, not just
their faces. The brushwork is soft and molded to depict the beautiful texture and vividness of their
garments, made more noticeable with the smoothness of their faces and hair. The two pairs of hands
that are visible appear tense and uncertain. Very prominent are the girls' shadows, which significantly
add to the drama and effectiveness of the scene.

Her subject matters focused on Indian women, and people living in poverty. She once described her
artistic mission: “to interpret the lives of Indians and particularly of the poor Indians pictorially, to paint
the silent images of infinite submission and patience, to depict the angular brown bodies, strangely
beautiful in their ugliness, to reproduce on canvas the impression their sad eyes created on me”.

Amrita Sher-Gil, a pioneer of modern Indian art often referred to as India’s Frida Kahlo, flashed through
the Indian artistic horizon like a fiery meteor. Masterfully blending traditional and Western art forms, she
placed women and their bodies at the center of her extraordinary art, scandalizing audiences around the
world and securing a place in art history. Her female forms were at once sensuous and vulnerable,
depicting women as both subjects and objects. The painter also used her brush to depict the daily lives
of Indian women of her time, often revealing their loneliness and despair. With her truthful painting, she
captured the full of the heat and dust of 20th-century India as it emerged from a century of British
rule.The daughter of a Sikh aristocrat and a Hungarian opera singer, Amrita Sher-Gil led a life as
compelling and unorthodox as her art. Always having a rebellious streak, she plunged into everything
that life had to offer. Unfortunately, Amrita died young at the age of 28, just as she was gaining
widespread popularity. During her short but productive career, the painter left behind a substantial body
of works which influenced generations of Indian artists.However, the artist has been overlooked for
decades, only recently receiving the recognition she deserves.

She especially focused on capturing the reality of Indian women, depicting them at the markets,
weddings, homes or bonding with other women. Weaving narrative elements of miniature paintings in
her work, she created intimate portrayals of domestic and everyday scenes, endowing them with both
sense of poetry and melancholy. Unlike usual depictions in India at the time, where women were cast
happy and obedient, her subtly expressive representations conveyed a sense of silent resolve. A female
body characterized by a passive sexuality emerged as one of her favorite subjects.Some of her most
notable works from this period are the painting Three Girls from 1935, depicting three young Indian
women sitting passively as if anticipating their predestined future;