3-015-800 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Young Woman Reading, 1875. Within this extravagantly decorated interior—which includes a painted ceiling and Asian-inspired upholstery, fire screen, and fan—a lavishly dressed woman reclines on a sofa. Her pose, costume, and luxurious surroundings suggest an expensive courtesan rather than a bourgeois wife. Perhaps the letter she reads comes not from a husband but from a lover or a client.