Mahatma Gandhi

Among the portraits executed by Ângela Trindade during her career, the depiction of Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps the most iconic. Painted in the year of Gandhi’s assassination and the early years of India’s independence, the artist portraits the father of the Indian nation draped in white, wearing his trademark round shaped rimless spectacles, reclining on a divan and a red cushion. He holds a pencil in his folded hands. A notepad can be seen on the floor.
Ângela was deeply inspired by the Mahatma’s teachings, which she considered very similar to the ones of Christ. The artist executed at least three portraits of Gandhi between 1941 and 1948.
References: Shihandi, Marcella, et al, António Xavier Trindade: An Indian Painter from Portuguese Goa (exhibition catalogue), Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 1996.