India's Nehru (Jawaharlal Nehru) is featured on the cover of Time Magazine, when Time was the most prestigious and important go-to resource for world news. Nehru is shown in 1942, when he was a leading figure in the Indian Independence Movement. Upon India's independence in 1947, Nehru served as the country's first prime minister, holding office for almost 17 years.
In this historically important painting, famed illustrator Boris Chaliapin depicts the anti-colonial nationalist and future heir to Mahatma Gandhi in a montage that tells his story simply yet with complex undertones. Nehru is seen with vertical and horizontal shadows representing prison bars while he did hard time under British rule. Yet the painting is mostly about optimism.
A strong directional light illuminates his resolute face while he stares into the future. His gaze evokes a higher level of thinking and purpose, appropriate for the architect of an Independent India. The background shows a de-emphasized silhouette of Gandhi and his spinning wheel. It's Nehru time, and he's moving on from his political mentor. The purpose of magazine cover art is to tell a story quickly and graphically and to attract the attention of newsstand passersby. Of the 400 Time Magazine covers Boris Chaliapin was hired to do, this work stands out, gloriously, in capturing the vision and dignity of the first prime minister of what is now the world's most populous country.
Signed, dated, and inscribed "N.Y." in ink in the lower-right image. With the inscription "To my dear friend Laird. As ever, Boris. Oct 10, 1942, New York. (our first cover!)" in ink on the back of the frame.
Image size of Nehru 12 x 11. Elegantly framed under glass to 28.25 x 18.75 inches. Copy of the Time Cover is house in the frame with the original artwork