Disclosed is an ink composition for ink jet recording that can realize excellent printing quality on various recording media, has a high level of color developing properties particularly on plain paper, and can realize excellent gloss for glossy paper and, at the same time, is excellent in ink reliability such as ejection stability, storage stability, and recovery from clogging. The ink composition includes at least a magenta solid solution pigment, a polymer, which can render the pigment dispersible in the ink composition, and water. The polymer is produced by copolymerizing a monomer composition including at least a styrene macromer (A) and a salt forming group-containing monomer (B).