- Sobha Singh (painter)
Sir Sobha Singh (1901-1986) is arguably the most well known contemporary painter Punjab has ever produced.
Early life
He was born on
29 November 1901 in aRamgarhia Sikh family inSri Hargobindpur ,Gurdaspur district of Punjab. His father, Deva Singh, was in the Indian cavalry.Education and training
At age 15, Sobha Singh entered the Industrial School at
Amritsar for a one-year course in art and craft. He joined the British Indian army as a draughtsman and served inBaghdad ,Mesopotamia (now Iraq ) . He left the army to pursue painting. In 1949 he settled down in Andretta (near Palampur), a remote and then little-known place in theKangra valley, beginning his career as a painter.Painting
His paintings of
Sohni Mahiwal andHeer Ranjha were very popular, his series on the Sikh guru's have dominated to an extent that his paintings dominate the public's perception associated withGuru Nanak andGuru Gobind Singh .The portrait he made in honour of the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in 1969 is the one most people believe to be the visage of Guru Nanak. Sobha Singh painted pictures of other Gurus as well
Guru Amar Das ,Guru Tegh Bahadur andGuru Har Krishan .His murals are displayed in the art gallery of
Indian Parliament House in New Delhi. The panel depicting the evolution of Sikh history featuresGuru Nanak with Bala andMardana on one side; andGuru Gobind Singh in meditation on the other. Sobha Singh also dabbled in sculpture, and did the busts of some eminent Punjabis such asM.S. Randhawa ,Prithviraj Kapoor andNirmal Chandra , and an incomplete head-study of the Punjabi poetessAmrita Pritam . The originals of his works are displayed in his studio at Andretta.Sobha Singh died in Chandigarh on
21 August 1986 .Trivia
Indian Government issued postal stamp in honor of Sir Sobha Singh in 2001.
External links
* [http://www.sobhasinghartist.com/history.html SobhaSinghArtist.com]
* [http://www.123himachal.com/sobhasingh_gallery.html Sobha Singh page on 123himachal.com]
* [http://allaboutsikhs.com/person/sobhasingh.htm Page at allaboutsikhs.com]
* [http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/personalities/sobha.html Sobha Singh Page on Sikh-History.com]
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