Women reading: September

The September painting on my Women Reading calendar (see also 1st of each month this year) is Marianne Stokes' Slovak Woman at Prayer, painted around 1905.  Stokes was born in southern Austria (1855-1927), and studied widely on the continent.  She married the English landscape artist Adrian Stokes, and her work shows a wide range of influences as a result, with some pre-Raphaelite tendencies.  The picture below is, I find, utterly charming - primitive, strongly delineated, and clearly expressive of the woman's concentration and devotion.  You can see more of Marianne Stokes' paintings here and at these amazing pages on the Art inconnue blog, where there are dozens of "women reading" paintings, many of them completely unknown to me.

 

Now, she's at prayer.  But I wonder what she might be reading at home, in Slovakia in the first decade of the nineteenth century?  Well, if she was really up to date, she might be reading Martin Kukučín (1860-1928), whose best-known full-scale novel is his Dalmatian work Dom v stráni (House on the Hillside) (1903-4), an acutely observed picture of Croatian rural life, about two lovers from different social classes.  (My thanks to James Naughton for the history of Slovak literature.)  I shall try and find a copy, and report back!

Comments

[New Jordans]

Excellent post. It makes me realize the energy of words and pictures. I learn a lot, thank you! Wish you make a further progress in the future.

[Lindsay]

Great - glad you enjoy them; as the end of the year approaches, I need to think of something else for next year!

[Sylvia]

I really enjoy your monthly Reading Woman calendar vignettes. I must admit I'm a little sorry to see Miss August go! Thanks for the extra links—reader paintings galore!