Interior - Girl Reading
Provis specialised in small, detailed interiors of cottages and farm houses with women and children doing household chores. Such genre pieces, popular in Victorian England, set out to present a 'slice of life'. There was, however, a tendency to beautify the subject, to cater for the taste in pictures of pretty young women. The soft lighting and subdued colours achieve this effect. The girl probably reads the Bible, as judging by the sparse furnishings this would be the only book likely to be kept in the cottage.
