Child Wife

Child Wife, also known as Child Bride (1936), is an oil on canvas painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil (1913 – 1941). It measures 53 × 76 cm, and belongs to the Saraya private collection.

Composition
Child Wife is an oil on canvas painting depicting a young Indian girl sitting alone dressed in her bridal outfit. It measures 53 × 76 cm, and belongs to the Saraya private collection.

Background
Amrita Sher-Gil (1913 – 1941), was a Hungarian-Indian artist. At the age of 12 years, in India, she witnessd a girl of age 13 years being married to a 50 year old man. She completed Child Wife in 1936, the year after painting Mother India. From her home in Simla, in a letter to her friend Denise Prouteaux dated July 1937, Sher-Gil told her that the painting is "too influenced by Gauguin. I am now getting away from his influence".

Interpretation
Art historian Sonal Khullar interprets the Child Wife and Mother India as neither depicting rosy images of women, but they have a connection with Indian nationalist aspirations for reform in India. She says that Sher-Gil's paintings of 1935 to 1936 "refuse to represent India as voluptuous, colorful, sunny and superficial"... "their dark, detached, and distant subjects critique nationalism's idealization of the masses".