I really love this painting, which is by the American artist Irving Ramsay Wiles (1861-1948). Painted in 1900, it is just called The Reader. You can see lots more of his paintings here, including several of women, or children, reading. But I think this one is rather special, partly for the freedom of the way he's painted it, but mostly for the way he's captured that look of such intense concentration. Anyone who loves reading will relate to this girl's complete absorption in whatever it is she's so caught up in -- I'm thinking perhaps a story in a magazine. Beautiful.
