Woman Reading

Woman Reading

10" x 9"     oil on linen    2011
Private Collection, Massachusetts

While working on this painting I was reminded of the Fragonard at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C: A Young Girl Reading. 
                                        

Growing up in D.C., the Fragonard was one of the paintings that the docent always shepherded us toward on school field trips to the Gallery... and always remarked on how the woman's little finger was so elegantly curled. Anyway ... is this my homage to Fragonard? I guess it would seem so. In my painting, the young woman is similarly posed, sort of, and has a similarly colored blouse, with some white showing. 

My biggest struggle involved putting in the text on the phone. The initial drawings had horizontal rows of dots and lines, and I thought to do something similar with the paint, but every attempt came out badly. Then I settled on the single curled line (did Fragonard’s elegant gesture migrate there?), and it looked fine to me. And maybe a bit amusing. 

A Young Girl Reading 

 32" x 25 1/2"      ca. 1776     

Jean-Honore Fragonard