Musician playing Guqin (古琴 )

Art Historical Context

This delicate watercolor on paper, titled *Musician Playing Guqin*, captures a moment from late 18th-century China, likely during the Qing dynasty. Depicting an elegant woman immersed in playing the guqin—a seven-stringed z revered as one of the scholar's four arts (alongside chess, calligraphy, and paintingthe artwork measures 17 x 14 inches and exemplifies traditional Chinese works on paper. Now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Department of Musical Instruments, it was generously gifted by Lawrence Creshkoff 1990. The guqin holds profound cultural significance, symbolizing refinement...