A Young Girl Reading

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Artist: Jean-Honore Fragonard

Completion Date: c.1776

Style: Rococo

Genre: portrait

Technique: oil

Material: canvas

Dimensions: 64.8 x 81.1 cm

Gallery: National Gallery of Art, Washingon, DC, USA

Tags: female-portraits

This painting was one of a series of paintings featuring young girls. Although the model in this painting is unidentified, it may well have been Fragonard’s daughter, who frequently worked as one of his models. Contemporary x-rays have revealed that this painting, depicting a young girl in a sunshine yellow dress, deeply absorbed in her reading, was painted over a different image. As in many of Fragonard’s paintings the viewer gets the impression that he or she is witnessing a private moment, and is at once struck by the beauty and intimacy as well as the desire to give the girl her privacy and let her read.

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