The Reading

A seated women reads a book, while two boys listen attentively, crouched beside her. One of them rests his chin on his hand in an attitude of concentration.

The composition is closed in an arc, the light concentrating on the figure of the reader and contrasting gently with the rest in shadow. The darkness is much more intense in the area on the right, gradually lightening, using the scraper, towards the left over the heads of the two boys.

This is the first time that Goya introduced the uso of lithographic pencil in order to create a composition in chiaroscuro, which requierd the stone to be grained in different ways depending on what was to be achieved, as the drain facilitates the different intensities of colour.

The result of this lithography was not satisfactory, as the Cardano establishment did not have fine grain with which to obtain intense blacks. Goya tried to achieve the desired black with a brush, but the result was not what he had hoped for, leaving a somewhat dull print.

The characters in this intimate scene have been identified as Leocadia Weiss and her children, Guillermo and Rosario.