Reading and Art


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The Blue Gown (1915).
Robert Spencer (American, 1879-1931).

Spencer was interested in figurative painting, although typically the people he depicted were anonymous members of a crowd rather than familiar individuals.

Toward the end of his life, Spencer also experimented with a looser, more spontaneous style somewhat akin to modernist ideas.

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An Afternoon Read.
Louis Charles Verwee (Belgian, 1832-1882).
Oil on canvas.

Verwee learned to paint with his father, who was a well-known landscape and animal painter of the Romantic school.

Verwee painted portrait and genre scenes, people doing everyday things, like reading, in interiors, greenhouses, gazebos and gardens.

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The Pensive Reader (c.1894).
Mary Cassatt (American, Impressionism, 1844-1926).
Pastel.

Portraits of women and children shown in the privacy of their everyday lives, such as while reading, are common in Cassatt’s work.

Pensive Reader is a typical example, although looser than many works. The rapid, sketchy treatment of the blouse, book, and wall contrasts with the clear, firm outline of the face, which shows that the Cassatt still cared about precise drawing.


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