This painting, The Reader of Novels, is by Belgian artist Antoine Joseph Wiertz, and was completed in 1853.
It certainly captures the pleasure of lying in bed reading a dirty book!
I just wonder ... who is that sneaking in and trying to nick one of her other books?
Wiertz, btw, painted some really weird morbid stuff - you can see some of it here if you are interested. These examples aren't the half of it:
 |
| The Young Witch, 1857 |
 |
| Two Young Girls, 1847 |
I always loved Two Young Girls, it is one of the pictures that has resonated with me for years.
ReplyDeleteI kid you not: before I read your text I'd assumed the second figure in the first painting was supplying her with her next dirty book, not removing it! (:v>
ReplyDeleteI hadn't considered that, Jeremy! Ooh!
ReplyDeleteYe olde smut peddlar...