Well known artist of portraiture and paintings on Sikh History Mehar Singh (91) passed away on August 26 in Delhi. Due to deteriorating health his sons took him to Delhi in December 2019.
Mehar Singh served as President of Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi for two terms and also as Vice Chairman, Punjab Arts Council.
Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi and Punjab Kala Parishad have expressed condolences at the loss of this fine artist.
Born to Sardar Saudagar Singh and Sardarni Mahinder Kaur in Lahore on 1st October 1929 into a house of craftsmen having wood workshop, Mehar Singh studied at DAV College, Lahore and then for some time at Mayo School of Art, Lahore where two of his uncles were teachers, one taya and another Chacha called Pritam Singh, elder and youngers brothers of his father. At the same time he took apprenticeship under Sardar Sobha Singh, who asked him to choose between formal education and full time apprenticeship. His father, who was not opposed to his learning art, did not want him to leave regular education in college. To please both his father and his Guru, he enrolled himself for evening studies while continuing his full time apprenticeship under Sobha Singh.
He was one of earliest two disciples of Sobha Singh, the other being Amar Singh.
Partition of India into two different countries affected his life also like millions of others who suffered the genocide that ensued.
Sobha Singh had already shifted to Andhretta, Himachal Pradesh. In the initial days of riots that were to devastate the state of Punjab, his family advised Mehar Singh to leave Lahore. When riots did not stop his family members also migrated to India and settled in Puranpur in Uttar Pradesh. Mehar Singh joined them in Puran Pur and later left for Andhretta to be with his Guru, Sardar Sobha Singh.
After learning the art of painting he left Andhretta in search of livelihood. A long period of struggle followed before joining a friend, Brij Bhushan in Delhi, painting calendars for Mehta Art Press which included paintings of Ram Durbar, Hanumaan and other mythological figures at the same time studying art at the Delhi Polytechnic (Now Known as Delhi College of Art) as a student in the evening studies.
He received encouragement from Dr. M S Randhawa, who used to fine tune his art and mature into an accomplished artist of portraiture. A portrait of Maharaja Ranjit Singh won him an award and further encouragement by his Guru, Sobha Singh. He made portraits of artists, poets, legendry film personalities and politicians. Quite a few of the portraits of eminent personalities from the field of art and culture, painted by Sr. Mehar Singh, are displayed in the Portrait Gallery at Punjab Kala Bhawan, Sector 16 B, Chandigarh, including those of Prithvi Raj Kapoor, Dr. M S Randhawa, Sobha Singh, Prem Bhatia among many others.
Apart from initial training under the guidance of Sobha Singh his art was also influenced by Rembrandt, Raphael, Andrew Loomis, Howard Pyle and Norman Rockwell.
He received a commission to make a painting of Guru Gobind Singh by S S Anand and further encouragement by Principal Satbir Singh to make paintings of Banda Singh Bahadur, which got him more interested in making paintings of Guru Sahibaans. SGPC, Bank of Punjab, Punjab and Sindh Bank commissioned him to make paintings on Sikh History.
After an accident about fifteen years ago, he stopped painting but kept on enjoying life in the company of his family and friends.
He was honoured with the first Sobha Suingh Memorial Award by the Punjab Government and Punjab Kala Rattan by Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi. He was a recipient of AIFACS and YMCA Awards.
He served as President of Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi for two consecutive terms and later as Vice Chairperson of Punjab Kala Prishad.
Sardar Mehar Singh’s mortal remains were put to rest at a crematorium in Delhi on 26th August 2020.