Born in 1922 in Mumbai, Jehangir Sabavala studied at the best-known art colleges of the world. After receiving his first fine arts diploma from the Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, in 1944, Sabavala went to Europe and studied at the Heatherley School of Art, London, from 1945 to 1947, and in Paris at the Academie Andre Lhote from 1948 to 1951, the Academie Julian from 1953 to 1954, and the Academic de la Grande Chaumiere in 1957.

Sabavala works most often in oils, creating landscapes, seascapes and figures deftly with his brush, and has recently begun to paint cityscapes as well. Describing his palette as quiet, this modern Indian artist says that veiled light and middle-tones appeal to him much more than pure colours and loud imagery. An artist practicing in the modernist style with a deeply ingrained classical influence, Jehangir Sabavala creates almost geometric wedges out of paint, which he puts together to form vast, tranquil scenes. These ‘receding planes’ give each canvas an illusory sense of depth, illustrating Sabavala’s mastery over light, colour, and texture.

In the artist's early works, the human form emerged as only a minuscule element on the canvas, shrouded in silence and encapsulating the notion of solitude perfectly. However, his figures, over the many years that Sabavala has painted, have begun to reveal more and more of themselves, even though they are still distanced from the viewer.

The artist passed away in 2011.