Jehangir Sabavala (23 August 1922 – 2 September 2011) was an Indian painter.

Early life and education

Jehangir Ardeshir Sabavala was born to an affluent Parsi family in Mumbai, India. His mother belonged to the aristocratic Cowasjee Jehangir family. He studied at Cathedral and John Connon School, Elphinstone College, and earned a diploma from Mumbai's Sir J. J. School of Art in 1944. Thereafter he went to Europe and studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art, London, (1945–47), and in Academie Andre Lhote, Paris (1948–51), the Académie Julian (1953–54), and finally at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1957.

Career

Since 1951, he has held 31 major solo exhibitions across the subcontinent, and in Europe. He has participated in more than 150 group exhibitions all over the world. His work is in several important private and public collections, such as the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, Birla Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta, Parliament House, New Delhi, The Punjab Government Museum, Chandigarh, Air India Mumbai, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, The National gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

Sabavala did not allow archives of his 12 scrapbooks on materials from the early 1940s to the 2000 online. Arun Khopkar's film on Sabavala's life and art, Colours of Absence, won the National Award in 1994. In 2010, another film about his life was made, The Inheritance of Light: Jehangir Sabavala. His last solo exhibition, 'Ricorso', was held at the Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, in 2008.

In 2010, one of his serene landscapes called Casuarina Line fetched Rs. 17 million at a Saffronart auction.

One of his paintings titled Vespers 1, was sold for £253,650 (Rs. 21 million) at a Bonhams sale in London.

Awards

Padma Shri by the Government of India – 1977

Lalit Kala Ratna, the Fellowship of Lalit Kala Akademi, India's National Academy of Arts, by the President of India - 2007