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{{Short description|1935 painting by Amrita Sher-Gil}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Hill Women
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| image = Women-Painting of Amrita Sher Girl (cropped).jpeg
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| caption = ''Hill Women''
| artist = [[Amrita Sher-Gil]]
| year = 1935
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| medium = [[Oil on canvas]]
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| height_metric = 147.3
| width_metric = 87
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| preceded_by = ''Hill Men''
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}}
'''''Hill Women''''' is an [[oil on canvas]] painting by Hungarian-Indian artist [[Amrita Sher-Gil]], completed after she painted ''Hill Men'' in the winter of 1935 at Simla. Depicting a girl among three young women, it was influenced by the poor surrounding Sher-Gil's home in [[Simla, India]].

The painting was exhibited at the [[Salon (Paris)|Paris Salon]] in 1936, and later at [[Hyderabad]] that year. Sher-Gil picked it for display at [[Amrita Sher-Gil's paintings at Lahore (1937)|her One Man Show in Lahore]] in 1937. In 1978, it appeared on an Indian [[postage stamp]].

==Composition==
''Hill Women'' is an [[oil on canvas]] painting measuring 89 cm by 147.3 cm, depicting a girl among three young women.<ref name=Haupt2016>{{cite book |last1=Haupt |first1=Christina |title=Amrita Sher-Gil and the representations of non-western female bodies |date=2016 |publisher=Grin |location=Norderstedt |isbn=978-3-6684-887-7-9 |pages=5–7}}</ref><ref name=Sundaram2010.418>Sundaram, p. 418</ref> The work accompanied Sher-Gil's painting titled ''[[Hill Men]]'', originally called ''Villagers in Winter''.<ref name=Tillotson1997>{{cite journal |last1=Tillotson |first1=G.H.R. |title=A Painter of Concern: Critical Writings on Amrita Sher-Gil |journal=India International Centre Quarterly |date=1997 |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=57–72 |jstor=23002294 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23002294 |issn=0376-9771}}</ref> Both were completed in the winter of 1935, and influenced by the poor surrounding Sher-Gil's home in Simla.<ref name=Dalmia2013.73/>

According to Sher-Gil, generally she was not attempting to narrate any story in such paintings, but wished them to be "purely pictorial", claiming that she did not like "cheap emotional appeal".<ref name=Dalmia2014/> The sad open-eyed faced figures appear in black-green, each looking inwards.<ref name=Dalmia2013.73/> Their bodies are elongated and appear thin.<ref name=Dalmia2014>{{cite book |last1=Dalmia|first1=Yashodhara |editor1-last=Dalmia |editor1-first=Yashodhara |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-809886-7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7W4oAEACAAJ |language=en |chapter=7. Transformation of the pre-modern to the modern in early twentieth-century Indian art|page=56}}</ref> The lips in one figure are seen to be pouting.<ref name=Dalmia2013.57>Dalmia, pp. 57-58</ref> Near the centre is a dark-faced child wrapped in a light shawl, and placed on a dark background.<ref name=Tillotson1997/> Three dark faces appear on a light background.<ref name=Tillotson1997/> The woman in the centre has one hand placed on the child's shoulder.<ref name=Tillotson1997/> Another is holding a terracotta pot.<ref name=Tillotson1997/> Draperies in the picture flow in curves at the top of the painting and in vertical drops to the ground.<ref name=Tillotson1997/>

==Exhibits==
''Hill Women'' was exhibited, along with ''Hill Men'', at the Paris Salon in 1936 when it received a mention in French newspapers.<ref name=Sundaram2010.242>Sundaram, pp. 242-243</ref> Later that year, it was shown at Hyderabad with a sale price of ₹2,500.<ref name=Sundaram2010.278>Sundaram, p. 278</ref> There, it was admired by [[Sarojini Naidu]], who tried to persuade the Museum of Hyderabad to acquire the painting.<ref name=Sundaram2010.278/> According to Sher-Gil's note to her mother, Akbar Hydari of the museum "got frightened by the prices" of her work and changed his mind about purchasing any of them.<ref name=Sundaram2010.278/> In 1937, it was number four of her paintings [[Amrita Sher-Gil's paintings at Lahore (1937)|displayed at her One Man Show in Lahore]], at a reduced price at ₹1,500, but did not sell.<ref name=Sundaram2010.418/>

==Interpretation and response==
''Hill Women'' is generally considered one of Sher-Gil's well-liked paintings.<ref name=Singh1975>{{cite journal |last1=Singh |first1=N Iqbal |title=Amrita Sher-Gil |journal=India International Centre Quarterly |date=1975 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=209–217 |jstor=23001838 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23001838 |issn=0376-9771|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The historians Yashodhara Dalmia and [[Giles Tillotson]] call it one of her most important pieces and a [[masterpiece]].<ref name=Tillotson1997/><ref name=Dalmia2013.73>Dalmia, pp. 73-75</ref> Dalmia points out that the subjects of the painting may appear poor, thin and sad, but they have "grace and dignity".<ref name=Dalmia2014/> She puts the pouting lips down to reflecting Sher-Gil's own sensuous reflection of herself.<ref name=Dalmia2013.57/> What strikes Tillotson is "their doleful expressions", appearing as "tombstones" and "detached from each other", yet "bound in a group".<ref name=Tillotson1997/><ref name=Tillotson>{{cite book |last1=Tillotson|first1=Giles|editor1-last=Dalmia |editor1-first=Yashodhara |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-809886-7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7W4oAEACAAJ |language=en |chapter=9. A painter of concern: critical writings on Amrita Sher-Gill|page=138}}</ref> He calls the resting hand on the shoulder a "gesture of protection", while there is a "carefully contrived play of light and dark masses".<ref name=Tillotson1997/> The art critic and friend of Sher-Gil, [[Charles Fabri]], describes the rounded figures as created by shadows, with Sher-Gil showing "complete lack of concern with the source or direction of light".<ref name=Fabri>{{cite book |last1=Fabri |first1=Charles |editor1-last=Dalmia |editor1-first=Yashodhara |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-809886-7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7W4oAEACAAJ&pg=PA16 |language=en |chapter=2. Notes towards a biography of Amrita Sher-Gil|page=16}}</ref>

[[Katalin Keserü]], who curated several Sher-Gil exhibitions, notes that along with ''Hill Men'', ''Boy with Lemon'', and ''Women'', ''Hill Women'' is "static", and features lonely "figures looking far out of the picture".<ref name=Keserü>{{cite book |last1=Keserü |first1=Katalin |editor1-last=Dalmia |editor1-first=Yashodhara |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-809886-7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7W4oAEACAAJ |language=en |chapter=8. Amrita Sher-Gil: the Indian painter and her French and Hungarian connections|page=109}}</ref> Her interpretation has been that these "were the representatives of India Amrita needed".<ref name=Keserü/> The painter [[K. G. Subramanyan]] classes ''Hill Women'' with ''Hill Men'' and ''[[Three Girls (painting)|Three Girls]]'', where the figures are grouped "in sharp silhouette against plain backgrounds".<ref name=Subramanyan>{{cite book |last1=Subramanyan|first1=K. G. |editor1-last=Dalmia |editor1-first=Yashodhara |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: Art & Life : a reader |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-809886-7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7W4oAEACAAJ |language=en |chapter=5. Amrita Sher-Gil and the east-west dilemma|page=39}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Stamp of India - 1978 - Colnect 326687 - Amrita Sher Girl.jpeg|right|thumb|1978 postage stamp with ''Hill Women'']]
In 1978, ''Hill Women'' appeared on an Indian [[postage stamp]].<ref name=Postage>{{cite web |title=Indian Postage Stamps - Stamps released in 1978 |url=https://www.indianpostagestamps.com/gallery/1978.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240122220414/https://www.indianpostagestamps.com/gallery/1978.html |archive-date=22 January 2024 |access-date=21 January 2024 |website=www.indianpostagestamps.com}}</ref> The painting belongs to the private collection of [[Vivan Sundaram]] and Navina Sundaram, [[Delhi]].<ref name=Sundaram2010.804>Sundaram, p. 804</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of paintings by Amrita Sher-Gil]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last1=Ananth |first1=Deepak |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: An Indian Artist Family of the Twentieth Century |date=2007 |publisher=Schirmer/Mosel |isbn=978-3-8295-0270-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vd7qAAAAMAAJ |language=en }}
*{{Cite book |last=Dalmia|first=Yashodhara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mj3mlgEACAAJ |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life |date=2013 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Gurugram |isbn=978-0-14-342026-2 |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Sundaram |first1=Vivan |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self-Portrait in Letters and Writings |date=2010 |publisher=Tulika Books |location=New Delhi |volume=1|pages=1–417|isbn=978-81-89487-59-1}}
*{{cite book |last1=Sundaram |first1=Vivan |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self-Portrait in Letters and Writings |date=2010 |publisher=Tulika Books |location=New Delhi |volume=2|pages=418–821|isbn=978-81-89487-59-1}}

{{Amrita Sher-Gil}}

[[Category:Paintings by Amrita Sher-Gil]]
[[Category:1935 paintings]]
[[Category:Oil paintings on canvas]]
[[Category:Paintings of women]]
[[Category:Paintings in India]]
[[Category:Paintings of children]]

Hill Women - Revision history

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