Glow of Hope

Before I start let me clear, that I am not a person who is very much into the paintings, arts and craft and all such beautiful and creative artwork. It requires immense patience, dedication, skill a calm and peaceful mind to bring out one good stuff. My friends and colleagues who are into such creative field of work either as a hobby or for bread, if you are reading it, you have my respect, yes, I mean it. Keep up the good work!

Now coming to the topic for which I am writing this blog. A couple of months ago when we all were dealing with this lockdown, an idea struck to my mind to bring out few beautiful portraits to a wall in my room, about things that have had a little impact on me in shaping my perspectives with growing age. After surfing the internet, I came across this beautiful watercolour painting “Glow of Hope” by S.L. Haldankar. It was painted in 1945-46, almost seven decades ago, but yet holds the same amount of fascination for art lovers all over the country as it did then. Believe me, it caught even my attention (somebody that does not understands art as much) for a few minutes and I didn’t even realize when did I land myself on Wikipedia and other encyclopedia websites reading about this painting.

The girl holding the lamp in this very popular painting is Gita Uplekar who died in October, 2018 at an age of 102. Gita was just 12 years old when her father S.L. Haldankar produced this masterpiece. At an event, which was organised in Kolhapur to honour Gita Uplekar to mark her turning 100 years, she told “I was just 12 years old and it was Diwali. I was lighting a Diya when Bhau (her father Haldankar) saw me and asked me to pose for the sketch.” Haldankar saw his daughter in a beautiful saree with a candle and her hand woven around the flame of the candle to prevent the wind from blowing it out. The rays of the candle radiated from the gap within her fingers which also illuminated her face. That sudden moment captivated and inspired Haldankar and he decided to portray that moment in his painting. He asked his daughter to hold her pose for around 3 hours continuously. You would be surprised to know that, it took 3 days to complete this painting and, in the meanwhile, Gita had to hold her pose for 3 hours on each 3 days. We can only imagine that how hard it would have been for Gita to bear the pain of a burning flame for such long hours. Little did she knew then, that in being her father’s inspiration, she would be immortalised, going on to become an iconic work of art.

A couple of years later, at an exhibition organised by the Mysore Royals for Dussehra, “Glow of Hope” won the first prize. Subsequently, the then rulers purchased the painting for 300 rupees and brought it to the Mysore Palace. It was later shifted to the Mysore art gallery (currently known as Jaychama Rajendra Art Gallery at the Jaganmohan Palace in Mysuru, Karnataka). Decades later a buyer from France was ready to buy this painting for Rs. 8 crores, but the Mysuru art gallery refused that offer to part with this precious artwork.

Each of the water colours used in this painting signifies and symbolizes different things- the lavender in her saree stands for grace and the gold showcases the royal touch. The woman in a saree, stands for grace, feminity and natural beauty. This painting is in a domain which is usually darkened with curtains, to highlight the subtlety of the glowing candle in her hand. The effect of the painting is heightened by the shadow of the woman in the back.

The painting and the story entailing it left a very powerful impression on me and I finally decided to give it a space in my “The Liberated Wall”😅. Here is a glimpse of the same...