Cleveland Museum of Art
Court lady singing and playing the vina (recto)
Muhammad Rizavi HindiLinkedCulture matchlcp-b49d80e62beb
- Date
- c. 1760
- Medium
- Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Culture
- India, Lucknow, Mughal, 18th century
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 170884
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Her mouth open slightly in song, the woman’s hennaed fingers strum a three-string vina, an Indian musical instrument with a resonator made from a gourd. Music was an essential component of courtly entertainment, along with the drinking of wine and the appreciation of poetry, paintings, and jewels. When the mouth is open, and teeth and tongue are showing, she is singing.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
- Provenance
- ?-1849: Sir Charles Forbes, 7th Baronet [1773-1849], Bengal, London, and Scotland, by descent to his great-grandson, Colonel Sir John Forbes | ?-1962: Colonel Sir John Stewart Forbes [1901-1984], Baronet, DSO, DL, Allargue House, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, consigned to Sotheby's London for sale | December 10, 1962: (Sotheby's, London, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, lot 23) | 1962-2001: Ralph Benkaim [1914-2001], Beverly Hills, CA, by descent to his wife Catherine Benkaim | 2001-2013: (Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 2013-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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