Perhaps more than the work of his two teachers, Boucher and Chardin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard's bravura handling of brushwork and color embodies eighteenth-century painting aesthetics. In A Young Girl Reading, the subject is shown in profile holding a book in her right hand and completely absorbed in her reading. She appears to be sitting in a window as light illuminates her face and body, casting a faint shadow against the wall. She wears a lemon-yellow dress with a white collar and cuffs accented with lilac ribbons at her bodice, neck, and hair. She is resting on fluffy pillows rendered in warm brown tones and highlighted in light purple. Each texture is rendered in a different brushstroke: her dress a thick weave of yellow and white, the pillows more loosely sketched, and her collar edged with the handle of the brush.
　As in Chardin's Soap Bubbles, the viewer has the illusion he is privy to an intimate moment. However, in Fragonard's work, the bright yellow of the girl's dress and the agitated strokes clash with the solitude associated with reading.


 

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　　在現代人的眼中，這幅畫是不可比擬的高超之作。該畫多少擺脫對於軼事表現出的興趣，從嚴格的定義上說，它算不上是一幅肖像，因為少女正在讀書，而非擺出姿態等待入畫，無疑是福拉歌納德最生動、樸實和令人滿意的作品之一。
　　少女的身份不為人知，但絕不是福拉歌納德的小姨子瑪格麗特，因為畫中人身材較高且膚色較黑。福拉歌納德以驚人的洞察力描繪了她優雅、豐腴的形體，她的頭髮向上挽起，紮著紫色絲帶，露出了形狀完美的耳朵。
　　畫中專心閱讀的少女顯得端莊嫻靜，只在嘴角露出一絲詼諧。領口周圍的蕾絲領是奇特服裝之唯一痕跡。這幅畫的成功在於心理的刻畫和繪畫的技巧。杏黃色服裝、紅色的靠墊和褐色頭髮的對比十分巧妙。