
Title: Samek
Date/Time: November 30, 9:58 AM
Location: ELC
Type: Visual Art Exhibition

Jean-Honoré Fragonard is known for paintings of lovers, elegant ladies, and bucolic scenes. The girl holding the book loosely represents an association with the fantasy figures in formal terms. There are a series of “Fantasy Figures” within his collection. However, in the Young Girl Reading, she is absorbed by her book, whereas the others are facing the viewer. The Young Girl Reading is not a portrait concerned with getting every detail of the girl/sitter. The artist wanted to capture the wealthy lifestyle.
The painting depicts a woman sitting in a chair reading a book. She is in a fancy yellow dress with ruffles and has her hair up. Her left arm is sitting on a wooden rail and is leaning against a pillow. The piece’s title is Young Girl Reading, which describes exactly what is happening in the painting.
This painting shows a young girl reading, a very common hobby for women back in the day. Once a woman has kids, she would tend to the children, but most would spend their time reading books. This seems to symbolize what was expected of women back then; to sit and look pretty. Since women were seen more as property and materialistic.
The expression on the young girl’s face seems sad or bored. When doing the same thing every single day, it can get old. She is trying to get through the day. The undertones I see in this painting are wanting more out of her life than sitting around and waiting.
In this drawing, I would like to put a title on the book since women back in the day were not a high priority in education. It would be a complicated subject she is learning about. I would also like to change the expression a little in the drawing from being bored to interested in what she is reading.
I would like to have a pattern related to education. There could be many numbers in the background that match the subject of the book she is reading. If not mathematics, then flowers show that even if she is learning about a complex subject, she still can have a feminine side.