Anil de Silva

Anil de Silva (1909–1996), known as Anil (Marcia) de Silva-Vigier, was a Sri Lankan journalist, political activist, author, art critic, and art historian. She worked for Marg, a quarterly Indian journal on traditional and modern art, and was co-editor of the children's magazine Toycart; She founded the Indian People's Theatre Association, was associated with the Indian Communist party, and was considered Bombay's avant-garde. In 1958 she launched an expedition to China to study cave paintings. She published several books, of which the most prominent were: The Life of the Buddha Through Painting and Sculpture (1955), The Art of Chinese Landscape Painting: In the Caves of Tun-huang (original edition 1964, translated in English in 1967), (1964) and This Moste Highe Prince: John of Gaunt, 1340-1399. She also co-edited a series on "Man Through His Art" for UNESCO.