A Young Girl Reading

A girl in a saffron-yellow dress sits in profile, utterly absorbed in the small book she holds, her hair drawn back, her posture composed and serene. Fragonard paints her in broad, confident, almost improvisational strokes - the ruff at her wrist and collar dashed on with flicks of impasto - yet the mood is one of quiet inwardness rather than Rococo flirtation. Now in Washington, A Young Girl Reading is among his most beloved works, a luminous, intimate image of private absorption and the simple pleasure of a book.