''Woman Reading'' is a 19th-century (

portrait painting Portrait painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissio ...

) by

Susan Macdowell Eakins Susan Hannah Eakins ( Macdowell; September 21, 1851 – December 27, 1938) was an American painter and photographer. Her works were first shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she was a student. She won the Mary Smith Prize th ...

. It is in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. ''Woman Reading'' probably depicts the artist's sister Elizabeth Macdowell Kenton. It is one of Eakins' many portraits of her family members in interior settings. It was in the collection of Julius Rauzin, who donated it in 1995. Julius Rauzin knew Susan Macdowell Eakins and her sister Elizabeth, and corresponded with them regularly for many years.Julius Rauzin correspondence

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

References

Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Portraits of women {{19C-painting-stub