Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

1770-72; Oil on canvas, 82 x 65 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Jean-Honore Fragonard
1732-1806


6 comments:

Azure Accessories said...

What a beautiful painting Amy...she looks so calm & absorbed enjoying her book...just look at her delicate pinky!!! :0)

Cheers

Duni said...

I love this painting - would love to see it in person some time...

Amy Lilley Designs said...

I'm such a sucker for the old Masters..I'm right there Heather, little pinky et. al.!!!!

Ah, Duni, the National Gallery in DC, a TREAT...I do hope that you get to see her in person!!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous painting! Hmmmm....it looks like me - with my nose buried in a book! My current read? The Girl With The Pearl Earring. Great story :)

Unknown said...

This is a really eye-catching picture. The colour of her dress is so rich. I often wonder how comfortable these sorts of dresses were ... at least they didn't have the problems of the sizes all jumping around. Imagine having such dedicated dress makers - hand stitching thousand upon thousand of tiny stitches gently catching the material.
My grandmother told me that when she was a small girl ladies would stitch ribbon along the hems of dresses that skimmed the floor and every so often the ribbon was unpicked and new ones were stitched back so that the hems didn't become threadbare.

Unknown said...

I'm quite amazed by this piece - the colour choices are so unusual for a portrait, in that the yellow is so strong it catches the eye first, and holds your attention. So you might wander about the painting for a bit but you keep coming back to the dress, and then meandering down to the book or up to the lovely profile - yet always back to that incredible yellow dress.

extraordinary.