Umrao Singh Sher-Gil: His Misery and His Manuscript

Umrao Singh Sher-Gil (1870–1954) was born an Indian aristocrat, but opted for a more contemplative life than his class had destined for him. A Sanskit and Persian scholar, he immersed himself in other varied interests, including philosophy, astronomy, yoga, and photography. This book presents the photographic oeuvre of Umrao Singh preserved as part of the Sher-Gil family archive. The photographs were taken over sixty years, beginning in 1889, and include many self-portraits, and shots of his family, including his Hungarian wife, Marie Antoinette, and their artistically inclined daughters, Amrita and Indira. The images are arranged into five sections, according to the different locations in India, Hungary, and France where the family resided.

[Umrao Singh Sher-Gil’s] photographic archive constitutes a legacy that highlights the role of personal agency in the construction of a modern subject. The hundreds of photographs he took form an extraordinary record of the life-world of an Indo-European family, and are a valuable document in the archives of modernity. He deserves to be seen as a pioneering figure of Indian photography.

~ excerpt from back flap

The foreword is by Vivan Sundaram and essay by Deepak Ananth. Also included are author biographies, notes on the archive, and titles and details of photographs. This clothbound, hard cover book with dust jacket has 254 pages and 142 special color plates. It measures 27.4 x 22.8 cm.

Sourced / excerpted from the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation website,except where noted. (2022)