A Young Girl Reading

Infobox Painting


image_size=230px
title=A Young Girl Reading
artist=Jean-Honoré Fragonard
year=c. 1776
type=Oil-on-canvas
height=81.1
width=64.8
height_inch=31 15/16
width_inch =25½
museum = National Gallery of Art
city = Washington, D.C., United States

"A Young Girl Reading", or "The Reader", is an 18th century oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The painting was given to the National Gallery of Art by the daughter of Andrew W. Mellon following her father's death. [cite book |last=Bergman-Carton |first=Janis |authorlink= |title=The Woman of Ideas in French Art, 1830-1848 |publisher=Yale University Press |date=1995 |pages="xi" |isbn=0300053800]

The painting features an unidentified girl wearing a yellow saffron dress, though x-rays have revealed that the canvas originally featured a different image which Fragonard painted over. [cite book |last=Bailey |first=Colin B. |authorlink= |title=The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2003 |pages=286-287 |isbn=0300099460] [cite book |last=Taft |first=W. Stanley |authorlink= |title=The Science of Paintings |publisher=Springer Press |date=2000 |pages=79-80 |isbn=0387987223] It is one in a series of paintings by Fragonard featuring young girls. [cite book |last=Southgate |first=M. Therese |authorlink= |title=The Art of Jama II: Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association |publisher=AMA Bookstore |date=2001 |pages=70 |isbn=1579471595]

References

External links

* [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=46020+0+none A Young Girl Reading at the National Gallery of Art]