Gita Haldankar was 16 when she posed for the iconic ‘Lady With the Lamp’ painting. At 100, she is still a picture of elegance
A thing of beauty is a joy forever/Its loveliness increases; it will never/Pass into nothingness, wrote John Keats in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the lines ring true for Gita Krishnakant Uplekar, who as a 16-year-old beauty posed for her father, S.L. Haldankar, the renowned painter. Seeing her in a Nauvari sari holding a lamp during Diwali celebrations, he immediately decided to capture the image on his canvas and thus was born ‘Lady With the Lamp’, aka ‘Glow of Hope’ painting. The painting is now displayed at the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery at the Jaganmohan Palace in Mysuru.
Gita is now 100, but she continues to be a picture of grace and elegance, and shutterbugs simply can’t have enough of her. “Recently, we celebrated her 100th birthday with a grand feast for 150 people and the guest of honour was Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur,” says her son Raj Prakash Krishnakant Uplekar.
Although Gita’s vision has blurred and she is a little hard of hearing, she remembers the events leading to the painting vividly. “It was the day of Diwali and I was lighting lamps on our big terraced flat. When my father saw me with a lamp, wearing my mother’s sari [I used to wear only skirt and blouse], he told me that he would make my portrait,” says Gita, at her home in Kolhapur. “Immediately after Diwali, he made me stand for the portrait in his studio downstairs. Later, the Maharaja of Mysore bought the painting for Rs 300.”
Haldankar, who hailed from Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, was persuaded to go to Mumbai by his headmaster, who saw his talent early on. Though it was a life of hardship initially, Haldankar carved a niche for himself. “He went on to establish the Haldankar Fine Arts Institute in 1908, as well as the Art Society of India, along with a few friends, in 1918,” says Sampada Haldankar, his granddaughter. “He also received two commendation certificates from the Royal Society of British Artists, London, and the Governor’s Prize by the British Government of Bombay Presidency in 1910, 1927 and 1932. In Independent India, he was felicitated by Dr Rajendra Prasad, and was made a fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi.”
Haldankar had, in fact, painted the pictures of all his three daughters. He also had four sons. “It was because of the 3D effect of sorts that Gita’s painting received so much critical acclaim,” says Sampada. “A painting of another aunt is displayed at the Nagpur Museum. My father took us to Mysuru to see the painting, and when he said he was Haldankar’s son, everybody was so excited to have us there. We were told that ‘Lady With the Lamp’ gets several visitors each day, besides the Raja Ravi Varma Gallery, of course, which is right next door. Only this painting is on display in that particular room. They switch off the lights and because the painting has a 3D effect, you actually feel that the light is glowing on her face. It is when the lights are switched off that the real effect is felt, and you can see the orange colour of the flame on her fingers.”
Most people mistake it for one of Raja Ravi Varma’s works. “It is a pre-Independence watercolour painting by Haldankar and he deliberately created a watercolour painting, and not an oil painting because he wanted to show that a watercolour painting could be made without any errors,” says Sampada, who grew up in a house full of paintings, with models walking in and out at all times. “In fact, it was over there that my father’s brother, Gajanan Sawlaram Haldankar, did a beautiful painting of Sam Manekshaw.”
According to Professor Prabhakar Kolte, who went to and later taught at J.J. School of Arts, the painting is a “wonderful study of light and human form. Light was his subject and his reason for expression. He wanted to paint the light and not the model is what I feel,” says Kolte. “Haldankar’s treatment of the sari is very personal. He is deeply concerned with the texture of the sari, and that can be seen in the strokes for the folds.”
Poet and art critic Ranjit Hoskote says “Works like Haldankar’s passed into a popular vocabulary of art partly because the paintings were reproduced extensively. Images such as ‘Lady With the Lamp’ came to embody a new emerging modern Indian art in the popular consciousness.” Also, watercolour portraits and landscapes happen to be one of the traditions of J.J. School of Arts, where Haldankar studied, says Hoskote.
Mumbai has paid its dues to Haldankar by naming a road after him. A few years ago, the French government expressed interest in acquiring the painting for a handsome sum, says Sampada, but the Maharaja of Mysore politely declined saying that the painting would never leave his art gallery.
(Source: The Week)
A thing of beauty is a joy forever/Its loveliness increases; it will never/Pass into nothingness, wrote John Keats in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the lines ring true for Gita Krishnakant Uplekar, who as a 16-year-old beauty posed for her father, S.L. Haldankar, the renowned painter. Seeing her in a Nauvari sari holding a lamp during Diwali celebrations, he immediately decided to capture the image on his canvas and thus was born ‘Lady With the Lamp’, aka ‘Glow of Hope’ painting. The painting is now displayed at the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery at the Jaganmohan Palace in Mysuru.
Gita is now 100, but she continues to be a picture of grace and elegance, and shutterbugs simply can’t have enough of her. “Recently, we celebrated her 100th birthday with a grand feast for 150 people and the guest of honour was Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur,” says her son Raj Prakash Krishnakant Uplekar.
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| Timeless beauty: Gita with a copy of the painting | Amey Mansabdar |
Haldankar, who hailed from Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, was persuaded to go to Mumbai by his headmaster, who saw his talent early on. Though it was a life of hardship initially, Haldankar carved a niche for himself. “He went on to establish the Haldankar Fine Arts Institute in 1908, as well as the Art Society of India, along with a few friends, in 1918,” says Sampada Haldankar, his granddaughter. “He also received two commendation certificates from the Royal Society of British Artists, London, and the Governor’s Prize by the British Government of Bombay Presidency in 1910, 1927 and 1932. In Independent India, he was felicitated by Dr Rajendra Prasad, and was made a fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi.”
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| Place in posterity: Gita’s brother Vijay Anand Sawlaram Haldankar and his daughter Aradhana pose next to the original painting kept at the Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery in Mysuru. |
Most people mistake it for one of Raja Ravi Varma’s works. “It is a pre-Independence watercolour painting by Haldankar and he deliberately created a watercolour painting, and not an oil painting because he wanted to show that a watercolour painting could be made without any errors,” says Sampada, who grew up in a house full of paintings, with models walking in and out at all times. “In fact, it was over there that my father’s brother, Gajanan Sawlaram Haldankar, did a beautiful painting of Sam Manekshaw.”
 |
| Gita with son Raj Prakash Krishnakant Uplekar and daughter-in-law Rajlakshmi | Amey Mansabdar |
Poet and art critic Ranjit Hoskote says “Works like Haldankar’s passed into a popular vocabulary of art partly because the paintings were reproduced extensively. Images such as ‘Lady With the Lamp’ came to embody a new emerging modern Indian art in the popular consciousness.” Also, watercolour portraits and landscapes happen to be one of the traditions of J.J. School of Arts, where Haldankar studied, says Hoskote.
Mumbai has paid its dues to Haldankar by naming a road after him. A few years ago, the French government expressed interest in acquiring the painting for a handsome sum, says Sampada, but the Maharaja of Mysore politely declined saying that the painting would never leave his art gallery.
(Source: The Week)
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