Classical Instrument Art Print – Veena, The Gourd Opened

Provenance

'Veena' is drawn as a single instrument lifted apart: a long neck with arched frets above, a lid with two bridges and a deep, open gourd below. The print is one page of an artist's sketchbook exploring Indian classical instruments, in which each part is separated and drawn with the care of a study, and the whole is held together by thin dashed guide lines that show where every piece belongs. The effect is part technical diagram and part drawing from life.

A long neck runs from the top left to the round lid, edged with a row of arched frets that float above it and a row of small pegs beside it. Three large turned tuning knobs sit at the head of the neck, with a pair of knobs drawn again in the upper right. The pale wooden lid carries two small bridges and a cluster of strings ending in small beads, and it hovers above a deep, ribbed gourd, hollow inside, with four wooden posts rising from its floor. Studies of a bridge and a strip of banded neck sit at left.

A warm palette of golden spruce-toned wood and deep rust-red gourd sits on cream, with fine pen strokes in grey, russet and blue around each form. The ribs of the gourd, the grain of the neck and the strings are drawn with different densities of line, giving each part its own surface. That sketched quality belongs to the artwork as drawn; the piece you receive is a print on canvas cloth, made to order.