'Woman & Child Reading' Print and Mount
Raphael (1483-1520), 'A woman seated on a chair reading, with a child standing by her side', Metalpoint on grey preparation, heightened with white body colour, c.1512-3 [OMD 728]
Purchased by William, 2nd Duke of Devonshire, this study of a woman and child dates from the period when Raphael was preparing for The Mass at Bolsena, painted between 1511 and 1514 in the Stanza d’Eliodoro in the Vatican, where there is a similarly dressed group of women and children in the foreground. The background is suggested rather than drawn, with a curtain to the left, and on the right a third figure in front of a door or window. The resemblance to a domestic Virgin teaching the Child to read, perhaps with Joseph in the background, is only suggested. This drawing probably from the life (the figures are both in contemporary dress), used to be in the collection of the court painter (1618-1680).