Sobha Singh
The painter of Andretta whose portraits of the Gurus hang in nearly every Sikh home.
Sobha Singh was born in Sri Hargobindpur in Gurdaspur district, trained as a draughtsman, and served in the army in Iraq. He set up as a painter in Amritsar, Lahore and Delhi, and after Partition settled in Andretta, a small artists' village in the Kangra valley.
His portraits of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, painted from the 1930s to the 1970s, are the most reproduced images in Sikh life; his gentle, glowing Guru Nanak, with raised hand, hangs in homes, shops, gurdwaras and taxis all over the world. He also painted the Punjabi legends, especially Sohni Mahiwal and Heer Ranjha, and portraits of national leaders.
He received the Padma Shri in 1983. His house and studio at Andretta are now a museum.
More painting and art
When Ranjit Singh took Kangra, the hill painters of Guler and Kangra began painting Sikh courts and the Gurus.
Indian and European artists who painted Ranjit Singh's durbar, from Kehar Singh to August Schoefft.
▶ Watch
The painted walls of Harmandir Sahib, where Sikh artists invented a garden of flowers, birds and beasts.
The illustrated life-stories of Guru Nanak, the oldest Sikh painting.
▶ Watch
The Sikh-Hungarian painter who became the founder of modern Indian art and died in Lahore at 28.
Amritsar artists who painted trades, castes and festivals for British buyers after 1849.
▶ Watch
Painter, sculptor and architect from Jhelum, deaf from childhood, whose paintings of Partition are among its strongest images.
▶ Watch
Painter from Lyallpur who left banking for art, and painted the crowds, bandwallahs and grief of modern India.
▶ Watch
Delhi painter, daughter of the writer Ajeet Cour, whose work draws on Sikh history, the 1984 killings and the women of the Punjab.
Painter from Wazirabad who began painting theatre sets and became the great painter of Punjabi village life.
Painter born in London who founded the fine arts department of the University of the Punjab in 1940 and trained generations of Lahore artists.
Miniature painter of the Patiala court who carried the old Mughal style into modern Lahore.
Painter of Amritsar known for romantic landscapes and paintings of Sikh subjects.
▶ Watch
The painted trucks of Pakistan: every inch covered in flowers, birds, poetry, heroes and mirrors.
▶ Watch
The blue and white glazed tiles and pots that cover the shrines of Multan and Uch.