Girl Reading

This girl was painted by Alfred Stevens (1823-1906) who, despite his very English sounding name, was in fact from Belgium. It's actually called Jeune Femme Lisant (young woman reading) and was painted in 1856. I like her little foot on the brown velvet cushion, and the fact that she has dropped her knitting wool and left her knitting in a tangle on the table -- the book has taken her over completely. Nice.