Saraswati
1830
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1830
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Saraswati is a 1830 paint by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a woman sitting cross-legged on a red lotus flower. She wears a blue dress with gold trim, a yellow skirt, and a gold headpiece. In her hands, she holds a yellow book and a stringed instrument. Around her grow bright pink and yellow flowers with green leaves. Her face is calm, with dark hair and simple jewelry. The colors are bold and flat, with no shading to make things look three-dimensional. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more paintings like this.
The painting depicts Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and patron of arts, music, and sciences, seated on a lotus surrounded by blooming lotuses and green stems. Executed in opaque watercolour on paper around 1830, she is shown wearing a blue salwaar-kameez rather than a sari. In her hands, she holds a long silver stem made of tin alloy diagonally, though its purpose is unclear as she is typically represented with a musical instrument such as a vina.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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