by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 2, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
A young reader turns toward an open book and away from us. A broad straw hat, decorated with red flowers and a blue band, covers much of her head. Beside her, a vase of small blooms almost meets the brim. Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Reading Girl brings a quiet activity into a concentrated arrangement of face, book, flowers and colour. The painting is in the Städel Museum [1] in Frankfurt, where it is recorded as SG 177 and dated 1880.
“Young Girl Reading” is an English alternative for this work; the museum uses Reading Girl and the German Lesendes Mädchen. The object number matters because Renoir made several pictures of readers. This particular canvas has a decorated straw hat, flowers to the left, and an open illustrated book held near the bottom edge. Its museum date of 1880 corrects the 1886 date given in the earlier page text. Städel Museum object record. [1]
At a glance
- ArtistPierre-Auguste Renoir
- Museum titleReading Girl (Lesendes Mädchen)
- Date1880
- Medium and sizeOil on canvas, 57 × 47.5 cm
- CollectionStädel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, SG 177
- Signature“Renoir” at lower left, recorded by the museum
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Watch on YouTubeThe Städel classifies the work as an interior portrait and describes the reader’s absorbed attention as a way for Renoir to show a private moment. Her identity is not supplied in the museum record. The picture gives us a closely observed reader, but it does not justify assigning a named sitter or identifying the book from the small painted marks on its pages.
The face, the book and the flowers
Renoir presents the young woman in profile. The brim of her hat arcs across the upper half of the image, directing attention downward to her nose, cheek and lowered eyes. The face is more firmly modelled than much of the canvas around it. There is no returned gaze to interrupt the act of reading: we can look at the painter’s choices precisely because the sitter’s attention remains on the book. The Städel’s short interpretation [1] makes this difference between concentrated face and loose surroundings central to the painting.
The book sits low and left of centre. Its open pages offer blocks of colour that suggest illustrations and text, but the lines do not resolve into readable words. One hand supports it near the bottom edge. The angle lets us see part of the pages without turning the viewer into a participant in the story. Renoir paints the act of reading more clearly than the content of what is read.
To the left, the bouquet supplies another kind of detail. Small touches of white and pink gather above stems and a pale container, yet many blossoms remain only quick marks. The flowers press toward the girl’s hat, where red and pale blossoms sit against woven straw and blue trim. These two groups of flowers create a visual echo across the face. The actual bouquet and the hat decoration are distinct, but Renoir lets their colours and shapes communicate.
The background includes a dark interior and a streaked, curtain-like passage at the left. The dark field makes the pale blouse, face and book stand forward. It also stops the flowered hat from disappearing into a busy room. We need not identify a particular house, window or time of day to understand the design: the painting gives just enough setting to place an absorbed reader indoors, then directs us back to the contrasts of colour and brushwork.
A picture built from different kinds of paint
Look from the face to the blouse. The features are kept together through relatively careful modelling. Across the light clothing, longer broken strokes of pale blue, grey, cream and warm colour describe fabric without sharply outlining every fold. The flowers and background are freer still. The Städel calls attention to this change of handling, especially the loosely placed background strokes and lively bouquet, as evidence of Renoir’s Impressionist approach in 1880. Städel Museum, “About the Work”. [1]
That variation matters more than a general claim that the entire painting is either precise or sketchy. Renoir wants the reader’s head and the act of reading to remain legible. Around them, colour carries much of the form. The blue hatband finds a partner in the cooler tones of the blouse and background. Red flowers give the upper part a series of small warm points, while the book introduces another set of small coloured shapes below.
The result is a painting that rewards two distances. From across a room, a white blouse and large hat shape frame a single quiet figure. Closer to the surface, the flowers, straw and background become an array of separate strokes. The subject’s absorption gives the whole scene its calm, while the brushwork keeps the surface active.
Why the 1880 date matters
The earlier page called this picture an 1886 work and explained it as Renoir’s return from a more classically drawn phase. That story does not fit the Städel’s 1880 date. The museum places the painting in his Impressionist work and points to the loosely painted flowers and background. A firm face beside free brushwork is visible here in 1880; it does not require us to move the object into a later stylistic shift.
Renoir returned to girls and women reading in other years. A Museum of Fine Arts, Houston catalogue essay on its separate Girl Reading [2] discusses later examples from the late 1880s and 1890s. Those works show that the motif recurred, but they should not be treated as images, dates or sitter information for the Städel canvas. When searching for this painting, the combination of SG 177, 1880, flowered straw hat and adjacent bouquet is more dependable than the generic title alone.
The subject can invite stories about innocence, secrecy or what the girl might be reading. None is documented by the museum as Renoir’s intended message for this work. The picture makes the book visible but keeps its words beyond our reach. That is enough to create a relationship between the reader’s concentration and our own looking, without pretending to know her thoughts.
From a Paris collection to Frankfurt
The Städel’s ownership record begins with an unspecified private collection in Paris. It then records a sale at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, on 22 March 1898, lot 6, to dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. The painting was sold to the City of Frankfurt am Main in 1910 and entered the Städel collection. The museum’s entry gives no earlier named owner or precise chain back to Renoir. Städel Museum, provenance section. [1]
The museum currently lists Reading Girl as on display in its Modern Art galleries, but room assignments can change. The live collection record [1] is the best place to confirm its location before visiting. Its SG 177 inventory number also helps distinguish it from other works given nearly identical translated titles.
Looking again
Begin at the brim of the hat and follow its curve to the lowered eyes. Move to the open book, then upward through the real bouquet to the flowers fixed to the hat. Finally, compare the quietly modelled face with the quick marks behind it. Renoir gives a familiar everyday action a strong visual structure, asking us to look closely even as his reader never looks up.
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Questions about Young Girl Reading
The Städel Museum dates its painting 1880. The previous page’s 1886 date was incorrect for this specific canvas.
It belongs to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, inventory SG 177. Check the museum’s current record for its display location.
The Städel’s object record does not identify the sitter by name. The title describes the subject rather than supplying a documented identity.
The open book shows painted marks and coloured areas, but its text cannot be read from the picture. The work depicts her attention to a book, not a securely identifiable title.
No. Reading was a recurring subject. The 1880 Städel canvas is identified by its flowered straw hat, nearby bouquet, dimensions and accession SG 177; later reading pictures have separate collection records.
Discussion
What do you notice when you return to Young Girl Reading?
How do the flowers on the hat echo the bouquet beside the open book?
Reader Insights
How do the flowers on the hat echo the bouquet beside the open book?
The Städel Museum dates this signed canvas 1880, catalogues it as SG 177 and records its 1910 Frankfurt acquisition.
Where does Renoir change from a carefully held face to loose strokes in the background?
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation or a source-backed question about Renoir’s Reading Girl at the Städel.
References
- Städel Museum, Reading Girl, SG 177: owner record for the 1880 date, dimensions, signature, interpretation, provenance, collection number and current display listing. The museum labels the picture copyright Public Domain View source.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Girl Reading catalogue essay: context for Renoir’s later, separate images of readers; not a source for the Städel sitter View source.
- The lead image is the original legacy image, visually matched to the Städel painting. The site owner identifies inherited legacy images as public-domain images.
