Leitura

Leitura ('Reading') is a genre painting by the Brazilian artist José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, depicting a young woman seated and absorbed in a book. The work is characteristic of the intimate, everyday subjects Almeida Júnior favored after his return from studying in Paris, treated with the academic naturalism and careful attention to light and figure that define his mature output. Painted in 1892, it belongs to the artist's most productive period, shortly before his death in 1899. The canvas entered public collections through a transfer from the Museu Paulista in 1905 and was incorporated into the holdings of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, where it remains. It is considered one of the representative genre works of late nineteenth-century Brazilian painting.