(Gawronzy 1860-1884 Paris)
The Reader (Portrait of Dina Babanina, a cousin of the artist), oil on canvas laid down on board, 64 x 53 cm, framed

Provenance:
Acquired December 1910 at the exibition „Die Kunst der Frau“, Secession, Wien (Vereinigung bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs)
Collection Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein Vienna-New York;
Thence by descent to the current owner,
Private Collection, Austria.

Exhibited:
Die Kunst der Frau, Secession Vienna, 1910–11.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Die Kunst der Frau, exhibition catalogue Vienna 1910, cat. no. 98,
(“Head of a Woman”).

We are grateful to Tatiana Shwetz, Marie Bashkirtseff Foundation, Russia, and Mag. Katharina Lovecky, Belvedere Museum Vienna, for their scientific assistance in cataloguing this work.

The present painting represents the first variant of the composition ‘Reading’ (1880), which is in the Kharkiv Art Museum (Inv. 305 ЖРУ).

Inclined to decisive action, Marie Bashkirtseff used a knife to cut up a picture that she thought was an unsuccessful version of her painting of her cousin. After the artist’s death, her mother Maria Stepanovna Bashkirtseff pasted the painting back together and gave it to the exhibition ‘Woman’s Art’ at the Vienna Secession in 1910. In the exhibition catalogue, the painting was depicted with cuts. Maria Stepanovna Bashkirtseff left the painting in Vienna as a gift to Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein (1882-1958), one of the main sponsors of the exhibition.