Reading is Fundamental

“Brother & Sister,” from The Gift: a Christmas and New Year's Present for 1839. Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart., 1838.

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Many U.S. publishers wanted to promote national art and so incorporated in their volumes engraved plates reproducing the work of prominent American painters. This delicately rendered scene of a young woman in profile reading to an attentive boy was designed by the Philadelphia painter Thomas Sully, whose work was praised in Godey’s Lady’s Book (1844) as “exquisitely beautiful.”

Adopted by Sarah Purcell, with thanks and love for L. Edward Purcell