Artwork
Reading
Reading is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot. It dates from 1873 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
The painting's formal qualities emphasize a balanced arrangement of figure and interior space, and the handling of light conveys a subtle atmospheric effect.
Reading (1873) is an oil painting executed on a woven canvas support. The work was created using oil paint, a medium typical of French genre scenes of the 1870s, and measures 46.0 cm in height by 71.8 cm in width. Its surface displays the characteristic loose brushwork and delicate tonal modulation associated with Berthe Morisot's Impressionist approach, while the subject, a woman absorbed in reading, is rendered with a quiet, intimate composition.
The painting's formal qualities emphasize a balanced arrangement of figure and interior space, and the handling of light conveys a subtle atmospheric effect. The piece is documented in the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection records and was previously owned by Wildenstein & Company.
History & Provenance
Berthe Morisot created the oil painting Reading in 1873 in France. The work measures 46.0 cm in height and 71.8 cm in width. Formerly owned by the gallery Wildenstein & Company, it subsequently entered the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is held under accession number 1950.89. Specific details regarding its public exhibition history are not provided in the available records.
Overview
Painted in 1873, Berthe Morisot's Reading captures a quiet moment of leisure in an outdoor setting. The composition centers on a solitary woman seated on a blanket in a grassy field, absorbed in a book held in her lap. She wears a light-colored dress and a hat, while a fan rests beside her, suggesting a warm summer day.
The background dissolves into a hazy landscape of trees and a distant house, rendered with the same atmospheric softness as the foreground. Morisot employs loose, visible brushstrokes characteristic of her Impressionist technique, creating a sketchy, immediate quality that emphasizes the fleeting effects of light and air rather than precise detail. This work exemplifies Morisot's focus on domestic and leisure scenes, often depicting women in intimate, unposed moments.
Executed during a period when she was fully embracing the Impressionist style, Reading demonstrates her ability to convey tranquility and the sensory experience of the outdoors through a vibrant yet restrained palette and fluid application of oil paint.
Subject & Meaning
The painting portrays a woman immersed in a book while seated outdoors in a verdant field. Dressed in light attire and a hat, she holds the volume in her lap, with a fan placed nearby on a blanket. Behind her, a soft, indistinct landscape unfolds, featuring trees and a faint structure in the distance. This intimate genre scene emphasizes personal contemplation within nature.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot was a French painter, printmaker and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.
