Amrita Sher-Gil is widely credited with setting the early contours of modernism in South Asian art by bringing together two distinct ways of seeing—European modernism and the visual traditions of the subcontinent. She was the daughter of Sikh scholar Umrao Singh Sher-Gil and Hungarian pianist Marie Antoinette Sher-Gil. Her childhood was divided between India and Hungary, giving her a bicultural upbringing that later informed her artistic vision. Sher-Gil received formal training in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts, where she absorbed the lessons of European masters such as Cézanne and Gauguin. Her early paintings reflect the discipline of Western academic realism, with careful modelling, composition and a nuanced understanding of colour....