Reading (La Lecture)

A young woman dozes over an open book, her arms folded on the table and her head resting upon them, the scene built from soft mauve and yellow curves. The sitter is Marie-Therese Walter, and Picasso painted this during his abundant 1932, the year he poured his love for her into canvas after canvas. Now in the Musee Picasso, Reading is among the gentlest - the muse caught in the drowsy, intimate moment between reading and sleep, the rounded, flowing forms and tender color making an everyday pose into an image of quiet, watchful affection.