Born on 30th January 1913 in Budapest, Hungary, Amrita Sher-Gil was the first important woman artist to emerge from India in the 1930s. In her brief life span of 28 years, she led the modern Indian art movement, which was then taken ahead by the Bombay Progressive Artists Group.

Sher-Gil's women, often drawn in their own private spaces, were not necessarily beautiful ladies from affluent families. Rather, they came from rural communities and villages, from the middle, and lower middle class families. She is considered the single biggest role model for post-independence women artists, in search of their own roots and identity.

The artist passed away in 1941.