Portrait of a Young Woman Reading Book. Lillian Mathilde Genth (American, 1876-1953). Oil on canvas.
Genth first settled in Paris in October 1900 where she enrolled at the Academie Carmen, an art school run by James McNeil Whistler. Whistler became a large influence on Genth’s work and she was known to be a favorite pupil of his. He was so impressed by Genth’s work that he gave her a paint palette, an honor that she used and treasured for the rest of her career.
Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (c.1895-1910). Walter Chamberlain Urwick (British, 1864-1943). Oil on canvas. Birmingham Museums Trust.
The portrait has the subtitle: The Thoughts Of Youth Are Long Long Thoughts. The wife is thinking long and hard, perhaps about a passage in the book that she is reading.
The Picture Book (1898). William Brymner (Canadian, 1855-1925). Watercolor, oil and resin on linen. National Gallery of Canada.
Brymner specialized in domestic figure scenes and avoided large historical subjects. The Picture Book of 1898 displays a “careful treatment of light and an understanding of the force of a simple emphatic composition.”
The Lesson (1912). Emanuel Phillips Fox (Australian, 1865-1915). Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Victoria.
Fox frequently painted women reading in both indoor and outdoor settings. Fox’s The Lesson shows a woman and girl reading in an indoor, domestic setting. The dappled light and decorative approach seen in the painting are characteristic of Fox’s work.
Léontine Reading (1909). Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919). Oil on canvas.
The work depicts the servant Léontine, a frequent model, who worked at Les Collettes, Renoir’s large estate at Cagnes. Showing Léontine absorbed in her reading, seemingly unaware of being observed, Renoir has nevertheless painted a subtly provocative portrait, exposing the woman’s sensuality, the beauty of her facial features and of her body that so fully and confidently dominates the composition.
Reading in blue kimono in the garden (c.1914). Jean Challié (French, 1880-1943).
Challié entered the Beaux-Arts in Paris and then studied in Gérôme’s studio. He then to Montmartre at the “Villa des Arts.” At first his style was post-impressionist; he has a short Fauve period which is reflected in this work of the woman reading on her patio.
