A Young Woman Reading
c. 1866/1868
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 60 x 72.9 cm (23 5/8 x 28 11/16 in.) framed: 81.3 x 94.6 cm (32 x 37 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Chester Dale Collection
Accession Number
1963.10.114
Art Historical Context
In the intimate portrait *A Young Woman Reading*, painted by Gustave Courbet around 1866–1868, we encounter the raw honesty of Realism at its peak. Courbet, a pioneering French artist and leader of the Realist movement, rejected the idealized fantasies of Romanticism in favor of depicting everyday life with unflinching directness. This oil on canvas, measuring 60 x 72.9 cm, captures a quiet moment of private contemplation, rendered in the artist's signature bold, textured brushstrokes that build depth and vitality from thick layers of paint— a technique known as impasto that gives his works a ...
About the Artist
Gustave Courbet · 1819–1877
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was a French painter who revolutionized 19th-century art as the founding figure of the Realism movement. Born in Ornans, a small town in the Doubs region of France, Courbet came from a prosperous farming family with anti-monarchical roots—his maternal grandfather had participated in the French Revolution. This background shaped his lifelong commitment to dep...