Published Paper Details:

Through her own gaze, a woman emerges not as a fragment of another, but as a complete creation in herself. Yet, throughout history, she has been cast primarily as a muse in artistic creation, her presence reduced to an object that adds lavanya (grace) or beauty to a painting. This perspective, shaped largely by the male gaze, disregards her inner realities, what she thinks, feels, and endures each day. As Neera Desai and Usha Thakkar note in their book, 'Women in Indian Society', when men are asked what their wives do, the common response is "nothing." Such a dismissal reflects how even visible labor remains unrecognized, let alone the invisible layers of emotion women conceal in order to meet societal expectations. Society has long written women into narrow scripts, casting them as caregivers, keepers of hearth and home, and arbiters of others' needs, while their own inner landscapes remain largely unread. The joys, fears, longings, and silences of women are rarely recorded, except in fragments glimpsed through the eyes of others. It is only when women themselves take up the pen, brush, or voice that these worlds fully emerge, vibrant and unmediated. This study seeks to disturb the authority of male-centred narratives, where "man," "him," and "his" masquerade as the universal, and to place "her" at the centre of discourse. This paper turns to the work of Amrita Sher-Gil, whose paintings capture women not as silent muses or icons, but as subjects in their own right, embodying moods, emotions, and truths that continue to resonate today. It aims to reclaim the unspoken, to give form to the silenced emotions and lived experiences of women, insisting that their stories, feelings, and perceptions are not peripheral annotations but vital, dynamic, and indispensable threads in the tapestry of human understanding.