Seated Woman Playing a Guitar

About this work

This quiet painting shows a woman in a pale dress sitting on a plain chair. She holds a guitar in her lap, fingers poised above the strings. The colors are soft and flat, like a stage backdrop. The piece likely came from a Persian palace wall. Built into palaces, these paintings were meant to be seen as part of the room, not solo art. The shape of the woman is bold and two-dimensional, not like European portraits. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum to see where this piece lives now.