Jeune fille assise avec un livre à la main

By the 1860s Corot was the most admired landscape painter in France, the man younger artists went to for advice about trees and light. In his studio, though, he kept painting something else: single figures, usually a woman seated with a book or lost in thought, quiet and half-finished in feel. He rarely sold or exhibited them. Some went to friends, and many stayed with him until he died, only afterwards singled out and prized. This is one of those studio women, a book resting in her hand, caught in the pause before or after reading.