Sobha Singh’s family starts digitisation of his artworks
DHARAMSHALA: To preserve and protect the art work of Sardar Sobha Singh, the family members of the artist have launched a project to digitise his paintings.
A family-run art gallery at Andretta, a tiny village in the foothills of the mighty Dhauladhar Mountains where Sobha Singh spent better part of his life, has many of the his rare original paintings available.
Reprints of many of his works are also on display in the gallery.
“We have launched a project to digitise the art works of Sobha Singh, who is revered as saint artists by the followers,” said Hirday Paul Singh, the artist’s grandson and general secretary of Sobha Singh Memorial Art Society.
“The sole purpose is to protect and preserve these rare and invaluable paintings,” he added.
Hirday Paul Singh said, RM Singh, a well-known contemporary portrait artist, has volunteered for the project.
Recently, Singh was recently commissioned by the President’s secretariat, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, to paint the official portrait of the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
Singh, who considers Sobha Singh his guru and follows his realistic style of painting, also painted the official portrait of 12th President of India Pratibha Patil and Speaker of the 10 Lok Sabha Shivraj Patil.
He is also vice-president of Sobha Singh Memorial Art Society. “The first phase of the project is complete in which all major works and drawings with Sobha Singh Art Gallery have been digitalised, initially in raw form,” said Hirday Paul.
Over 200 paintings and drawings that are available at the gallery are being digitised under the project.
“In the second phase, artifacts from the personal collection of the artist and his other belongings will be digitised,” said Hirday Paul.
Born on November 29, 1901, Sobha Singh settled down in Andretta, 12 kilometres from Palampur in 1949.
He lived in the tiny village for 38 years painting his masterpieces which include portraits of Sikh Gurus.
The portrait he made in honour of the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in 1969 is the one that most people believe to be the visage of Guru Nanak.
Sobha Singh also painted pictures of freedom fighters like Kartar Singh Sarabha and Bhagat Singh.
His paintings of Sohni-Mahiwal and Heer-Ranjha were also very popular.