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Celestial Musician (The Lyre Player)

Y. G. Srimati Indian

1947–48

Not on view

As an accomplished concert musician, Srimati had an empathy for music-related themes, a favorite being celestial musicians, or gandharvas. The term means “fragrances,” alluding to the rasa, the flavors of the senses. As semidivine beings, gandharvas occupy the heavenly spheres and serve as musicians of the gods. This composition was reworked on a larger scale in 1967, when the artist was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to produce a limited-edition etching for a peace convention held in Geneva that year.

Celestial Musician (The Lyre Player), Y. G. Srimati (Indian, 1926–2007), Watercolor on paper, India (Chennai) — Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Celestial Musician (The Lyre Player)

Artist: Y. G. Srimati (Indian, 1926–2007)

Date: 1947–48

Culture: India (Chennai)

Medium: Watercolor on paper

Dimensions: Image: 14 3/4 in. × 9 in. (37.5 × 22.9 cm)
Mat: 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Lent by Michael Pellettieri

Accession Number: SL.31.2016.1.14

Rights and Reproduction: © M. Pellettieri

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Asian Art at The Met

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world.