Sita Abandoned

Archibald Herman Muller was born of a German father and an Indian mother. Muller joined the Madras Art School where his work was highly regarded. After graduating he worked in Madras at his brother's studio, and by 1910 had moved to Bombay. In 1911, he won the Bombay Art Society's top painting award with a work entitled Princess Giving a Gift to a Brahmin Boy. Muller responded to nationalism by using the Ramayana and Mahabharata for inspiration. His historical narratives were based on the study of the nude, a genre that best demonstrated his skills in naturalism. The strength of Muller's paintings lay in his knowledge of the human anatomy.