Lucius Rossi
Italian, 1846–1913
Young Woman Reading
1875
Rossi's small panel is filled with details. 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.
| Medium | oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 9 9/16 x 7 7/16 in. (24.3 x 18.9 cm) |
| Object Number | 1955.846 |
| Acquisition | Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955 |
| Status | On View |
Image Caption
Lucius Rossi, Young Woman Reading, 1875, oil on panel. Clark Art Institute, 1955.846
Select Bibliography
Ludig, Sandra G. Between the Lines: Ladies and Letters at the Clark. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982.
Cass, David B. and John Wetenhall. Italian Paintings 1850-1910 from Collections in the Northeastern United States. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984.
Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992.
Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY
Provenance
[Georges Muller, Paris, sold to Clark, 10 Dec. 1937]; Robert Sterling Clark (1937–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.
