''The Reading'' is an oil painting by French painter

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

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1865 - 1873.

History

The painting was first exhibited in 1880 in one of the regular solo exhibitions mounted by Manet in his workshop. The picture was also part of the great posthumous exhibition of Manet's work in 1884, a year after his death. The work first belonged to the private collection of

Winnaretta Singer Winnaretta Singer (8 January 186526 November 1943) was an American-born heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She used this to fund a wide range of causes, notably a musical salon where her protégés included Debussy and Ravel, and nume ...

, Princess Edmond de Polignac, where it remained until 1944, after the death of the Princess. It was offered as a gift to the French State and deposited in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. In 1947, it was transferred to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, a showroom located in the Jardin des Tuileries and which belongs to the Louvre. It remained there until 1986, when, with the creation of the Musée d'Orsay, it was brought to this museum, like the rest of the collection of Impressionist paintings in the Louvre. It can currently be seen in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

, in room 31 of level 5.

Analysis

The painting depicts the artist's wife, Suzanne Manet (born Suzanne Leenhoff), seated, and their son, Leon, standing and reading a book. Leon was a recurrent model for Manet who portrayed him in several pictures, such as ''The Lunch'', ''The Boy Carrying a Sword'' and ''The Bubbles of Soap''. In this work the white woman's dress dominates, and the sofa and curtains are treated with broad strokes of high brightness, in counterpoint to the dark tone of the belt and collar. According to Peter H. Feist, in this painting "Manet reacts more sensitive than usual, and looks especially to shades of white that are offered to his eyes". Diana Seave Greenwald writes that ''The Reading'' "may have been inspired by Whistler's landmark '' Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl''".Greenwald, Diana Seave. ''"Madame Manet at the Piano'' (''Madame Manet au piano''), 1868", in Greenwald, Diana Seave, ed. ''Manet: A Model Family''. Boston:

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...

, 2024, p. 167.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reading, The Paintings by Édouard Manet Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay 1860s paintings Books in art Oil paintings Paintings of women

History

Analysis

See also

References