ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>SOBH&#256 SI&#7748GH (1901-1986)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="SOBH,SIDGH,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279SOBH&#256 SI&#7748GH (1901-1986), painter, famous especially for his portraits of the Gur&#363s, was born on 29 November 1901 in a R&#257mga&#7771h&#299&#257 family of Sr&#299 Hargobindpur, in Gurd&#257spur district of the Punjab. His father, Dev&#257 Si&#7749gh, had been in the Indian cavalry. At the age of 15, Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh entered the Industrial School at Amritsar for a one year course in art and craft. As a draughtsman in the Indian army he served in Baghd&#257d, in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He left the army to pursue an independent career in drawing and painting. In 1949, he settled down in Andre&#7789&#7789&#257, a remote and then little-known place in the K&#257&#7749g&#7771&#257 valley, beginning the most productive period of his life.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh was skilled in the western classical technique of oil painting. His themes came from the romantic lore of the Punjab, Indian epics and from the Sikh religious tradition. His paintings of Punjabi lovers Sohn&#299 and Mah&#299&#7749v&#257l and H&#299r and R&#257ñjh&#257 became very famous. Sohn&#299-Mah&#299&#7749v&#257l was rated to be a real masterpiece ; its impact upon the Punjabi consciousness was of a lasting nature. What gave Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh the utmost satisfaction was his paintings of the Gur&#363s of the Sikh faith. As he put it, "Painting the Gur&#363s is nearest to the ultimate in the evolution of my real self." His earliest painting in the series was of the birth of Gur&#363 N&#257nak done in 1934. The child N&#257nak was depicted in M&#257t&#257 Tript&#257's lap, surrounded by his sister N&#257nak&#299 and other women of the family, while &#346iva, R&#257ma, S&#299t&#257 and the goddess Sarasvat&#299 appeared from out of the skies to shower flowers on the holy child. The motif clearly bore the influence of Christian art of the middle ages. The earliest portrait of Gur&#363 N&#257nak by Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh captioned <i>n&#257m <u>kh</u>um&#257r&#299 n&#257nak&#257 cha&#7771h&#299 rahe din r&#257t</i> (Let the rapture of the Lord's Name, saith N&#257nak, keep me in inebriation day and night) was painted in 1937. The Gur&#363 is shown here with eyes lowered in a mystic trance. Several later versions of Gur&#363 N&#257nak&#8217s portrait by him are preserved in the Cha&#7751&#7693&#299ga&#7771h Museum. The portrait he made in honour of the 500th birth anniversary of Gur&#363 N&#257nak in 1969 won the widest vogue. Likewise, he made a portrait of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh for his 300th birth anniversary in 1967 which also became very popular. Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh painted pictures of other Gur&#363s as well--- Gur&#363 Amar D&#257s, Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur meditating in his basement chamber at B&#257b&#257 Bak&#257l&#257 and Gur&#363 Har Krishan healing the sick in Delhi. Earlier in his career, he had attempted a painting depicting Queen N&#363r Jah&#257&#7749 in the presence of Gur&#363 Hargobind, but ts prints were sealed following a protest from the Muslims in 1935.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Among Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh's portraits of contemporary personalities that of' Norah Richards, the matriarch of Punjabi theatre, was done with a rare delicacy and feeling.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Murals by him embellish the art gallery of Parliament House in New Delhi. The panel depicting the evolution of Sikh history features Gur&#363 N&#257nak with B&#257l&#257 and Mard&#257n&#257 on one side, and Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh in meditation on the other. Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh also tried his hand at sculpture, and did the busts of some eminent Punjabis such as M.S. Randh&#257w&#257, Prithv&#299 R&#257j Kap&#363r and Nirmal Chandra. He left an incomplete head-study of Amrit&#257 Pr&#299tam, the poet. The originals of his works are displayed in his studio at Andre&#7789&#7789&#257.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Much acclaimed and honoured in his lifetime, Sobh&#257 Si&#7749gh died in Cha&#7751&#7693&#299ga&#7771h on 21 August 1986.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1">Madanjit Kaur, <i>Sobha Singh, Painter of the Divine</i>. Amritsar, 1986<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">S. S. Bha&#7789&#7789&#299<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>