I am trying to find the name of a sculpture I saw at the National
Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.  I remember that it was of a girl
with braided hair and an exposed breast sitting and reading a book.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 21 Apr 2004 14:44 PDT

Are you certain it was a sculpture? Would this be what you remember seeing?

http://www.nga.gov/thumb-l/a0000d/a0000db9.jpg

tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by revdradam-ga on 21 Apr 2004 15:31 PDT

Yes, I am certain it was a sculpture. I think the girl was sitting at
a desk. I found that picutre too, when I was trying to search for a
photo of it somewhere on the web.

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 27 Apr 2004 06:42 PDT

Hi revdradam,

Although this is an engraving, it was taken from a sculpture which is
exhibited at the National Gallery of Art. Could this be the sculpture
you saw?

http://www.antiqueetchings.com/Webart/RoffeReading.jpg

Waiting to hear your views.

Regards,
Rainbow~

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Clarification of Question by revdradam-ga on 27 Apr 2004 09:56 PDT

Yes, that's the one! Thanks to your etching title, I found some photos
of it at http://www.jokeofalltrades.com/copper//displayimage.php?album=18&pos=2

Hi revdradam,

I'm pleased I was able to locate the sculpture you were looking for.

The name of this sculpture is The Reading Girl or La Leggitrice. The
following is the description of this piece exhibited at the National
Gallery of Art:

Pietro Magni
Italian, 1817-1877
The Reading Girl (La Leggitrice), model 1856, carved 1861
marble, 122 cm (48 1/16 in.) 
base: 51.5 cm (20 1/4 in.) 

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=124598+0+none



Search Strategy:

I used the "Expanded Search" facility on the National Gallery of Art
website, using the keywords: reading girl and medium: sculpture.

http://www.nga.gov/collection/srchexpd.htm

The only result was The Reading Girl (La Leggitrice).

I then entered the following search words in Google: "The Reading
Girl" "Pietro Magni"
and found the painting I posted in my clarification:

Antique Etchings
http://www.antiqueetchings.com/Content/htm/RoffeReading.htm


I hope the information provided is helpful. If you have any questions
regarding my answer please don?t hesitate to ask before rating it.

Best regards,
Rainbow-ga

Exactly what I was looking for, along with some additional info.