# A Lady Playing the Tanpura

**Unknown artist**  
ca. 1735  
Ink, opaque and transparent watercolor, and gold on paper  
18 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. (47 x 33.7 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996.100.1. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38038).

## About this work

An unrecorded India (Rajasthan, Kishangarh) artist painted this in about 1735. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
- **Ink on paper.** Ink made from soot and animal glue, ground with water on an inkstone. A single brush can give a hair-fine line or a broad wash, and nothing can be corrected.

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- Culture: India (Rajasthan, Kishangarh)
- Real size: about 19 × 13 in (47 × 34 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 11 × 14 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 18th century
- Subjects: Musical Instruments, Women, Music, Musicians
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/891.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/891/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/a-lady-playing-the-tanpura-met-38038).