Jehangir Sabavala was born to a well-to-do aristocratic Parsi family in Mumbai, in 1922 He studied at Cathedral and John Connon School, later pursued at Elphinstone College, and completed a diploma in art at Sir JJ School of Arts in 1944 Afterward, he went to London and got enrolled in the Heatherley School of Fine Art and finally studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in 1957

 

Jehangir’s works mostly include oils, landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, and deft figures He uses a modern style with a classical touch His works recently were solo exhibited in ‘Ricorso' at Aicon Gallery, New York, in 2009 and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, in 2008; and ‘Jehangir Sabavala: A Retrospective’ at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, and New Delhi, held by Sakshi Gallery in 2005- 06 His works have also been spotlighted in numerous group exhibitions globally, including more recently, ‘Trends and Techniques - Water Color in India’ at Galerie 88, Kolkata in 2005; ‘The Search’, Mumbai, in 2004; and a display of the Jehangir Nicholson Collection, Mumbai, also in 2004

 

He began his career with a solo show in one room of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai where MF Hussain assisted him Jehangir didn’t find a place in the Progressive Artist Group because he was bound by the academic culture of European art His work was held in more than 30 solo exhibitions across the subcontinent and in Europe and he had participated in more than 150 group exhibitions globally His artwork is implanted in significant private and public spaces such as the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, Birla Academy of Fine Arts in Calcutta, Parliament House in New Delhi, The Punjab Government Museum in Chandigarh, Air India Mumbai, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, The National Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide 

 

He is a recipient of the Padma Shri award by the Indian government in 1977 and he was honored with Lalit Kala Ratna, the Fellowship of Lalit Kala Akademi, India's National Academy of Arts, by the President of India in 2007 Several books and articles were written on his work and vision, name a few, ‘The Reasoning Vision: Jehangir Sabavala's Painterly Universe’, ‘Pilgrim, Exile, Sorcerer: The Painterly Evolution of Jehangir Sabavala’ and ‘The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala’ by Dilip Chitre, Ranjit Hoskote and Ranjit Hoskote respectively