Tag Archives: Take a Seat

Reading Women 8

Posted on November 17, 2021 by Brian

In the final session of her course Britta offered an explanation of why there are so many images of women reading.  Her starting point was that the paintings are overwhelmingly by men. First, the easy availability within the family of … Continue reading →

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Reading Women 6

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Brian

Yesterday we looked at women during the ‘mania for reading’ engendered by the birth of the novel in the 18th Century.  They are shown in both portrait and genre paintings, when the act of reading ideally reflects learning and status.  … Continue reading →

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Reading Women 5

Posted on October 27, 2021 by Brian

Britta spoke this week on ‘the explosion of epistolary activity in the 17th Century’; and its appearance in Dutch painting as ‘a new and unique sub-genre’.   People, most often anonymous women, are depicted receiving, reading, writing and dispatching letters.  They … Continue reading →

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Reading Women 4

Posted on October 20, 2021 by Brian

Yesterday’s U3AC session looked at The Blessed Reader, images of the Virgin Mary, principally the Annunciation.  The pictures included: the Simone Martini altarpiece, 1333, in Byzantine style; the Fra Angelico fresco from San Marco, Florence, c. 1435; a Veneziano predella … Continue reading →

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Reading Women 3

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Brian

Women predominate in paintings of people reading.  This reflects reading as a gendered activity: women read more than men, though whether this has always been consistently the case is unclear. The choice of women as subjects historically is not surprising … Continue reading →

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Women Reading 2

Posted on September 10, 2021 by Brian

Maybe I should try to introduce my own pictures of women reading into the course as well as bringing up Kertesz’s book (see yesterday’s post). There are around 20 examples of women reading in my book Take a Seat – … Continue reading →

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