Daughter of an Indian father and Hungarian mother, Amrita Sher-Gil was surrounded by art from birth and immersed herself in the incomparable stimuli of the bohemian spirit of the Paris of the 1930s. Characterized by a use of warm and sensual colour which is also influenced by the short period spent in Italy, her paintings of Indian subjects forcefully evoke Cézanne and Gauguin. The tones and light of her South Asia accompanied her entire artistic output, made up of numerous female portraits.