It depicts a view from above of Sher-Gil's younger sister Indira, naked and lying on a white sheet at a diagonal, and with one raised arm.

[6][a] In January 1937, she wrote to Indira that "I may have sold your nude and the group of young girls to the Nawab Salar Jung, after the Nizam the richest man in Hyderabad, if I were a sycophant".

[6][7] The painting was number 17 of 33 of Sher-Gil's works displayed at her solo exhibition at Faletti's Hotel in Lahore, British India, held from 21 to 27 November 1937.

[8] Writing from Budapest on 8 October 1938, Sher-Gil told her parents that she had left the painting she called "Indu's Nude" with the Indian National Congressman and her friend Diwan Chaman Lall "to see if he could palm it off on someone but he wasn't successful".

[9] In 1940, the painting was one of six of her works displayed at the Indian Academy of Fine Arts' Amritsar Exhibition, held from 31 October to 10 November, to raise money for the War Fund.