Reading, 1910
1910
20th Century
26 1/2 in. x 21 3/4 in.
Richard Field Maynard,
(April 23, 1875–March 2, 1964)
Object Type:
Work on Paper
Medium and Support:
pastel on canvas
Credit Line:
Florence Griswold Museum; Gift of Sylvia Maynard Knox
Accession Number:
1975.34.1
The upper-class Victorian woman was one of the principal subjects of American artists around the turn of the century. Idealized female subjects, captured in leisurely poses, were used to express ideas of beauty and purity. According to one art historian, "Contemporary painters portrayed the passive existence of these idle beauties as they read, sewed, admired their costly belongings, and most of all as they just waited in their pretty gowns for time to pass."