Artwork
Interrupted Reading
Interrupted Reading is an oil painting by the Realist artist Jean Baptiste Camille Corot. It dates from 1870 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Rendered in Corot's characteristic soft tonalism, the intimate domestic setting suggests a quiet moment of contemplation.
The painting depicts a woman absorbed in reading, seated with a book open on her lap and wearing an earring, headband, and necklace that evoke contemporary bourgeois femininity. Rendered in Corot's characteristic soft tonalism, the intimate domestic setting suggests a quiet moment of contemplation.
The motif of a solitary female figure engaged in study links the subject to broader nineteenth-century ideals of female education and cultural refinement, a theme Corot returned to in his late figure paintings.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, measuring 92.5 cm in height by 65.1 cm in width. Corot applies the paint with a smooth, blended technique that emphasizes atmospheric effects and subtle tonal transitions. The composition shows a woman engrossed in reading, her head adorned with a headband and necklace and a book resting in her lap, contributing to a quiet, contemplative mood characteristic of Corot's later works.
History & Provenance
Interrupted Reading was painted by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot in 1870 in oil on canvas, measuring 92.5 by 65.1 centimeters. Its documented provenance includes Émile Charles Julien de La Rochenoire, the writer Alexandre Dumas fils, the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, and the Chicago collector Potter Palmer, before the work entered the Art Institute of Chicago, where it is now held. It has appeared in exhibitions dedicated to the artist, including "Corot 1796-1875" and "Corot. The Painter and his Models."
Context
Interrupted Reading belongs to the late phase of Corot's career, painted in 1870, five years before his death. Now held by the Art Institute of Chicago, it has featured in exhibitions devoted to the artist, including "Corot 1796-1875" and "Corot. The Painter and his Models," reflecting scholarly interest in his late figure paintings and his recurring motif of solitary female readers.
Its documented provenance, passing through Alexandre Dumas fils, Paul Durand-Ruel, and Potter Palmer, links the work to both French literary circles and American Gilded Age patronage of Barbizon-school painting.
Overview
Created in 1870 by French painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Interrupted Reading is an oil on canvas that resides in the Art Institute of Chicago. The composition presents a solitary woman seated on a red chair, absorbed in a book, and rendered in the Realist idiom that Corot embraced late in his career.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (UK: KORR-oh, US: kə-ROH, kor-OH; French:; 16 July 1796 – 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching.
- Interrupted Reading
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