Pietro Magni | The Reading Girl/ La Lettrice, 1856

Pietro Magni's marble statue The Reading Girl brought the Milanese sculptor international fame and recognition.

It was exhibited numerous times at international exhibitions throughout Europe and America, each time to great public and critical acclaim. Stylistically it owes much to the artistic tradition of verismo or "realism" that characterized Italian art during the middle years of the nineteenth century, but it also recalls earlier aspects of Italian romanticism.

Victorine Meurent | Manet’s favorite model / painter

Victorine Meurent was Manet’s favorite model in the 1860s, posing for Street Singer, in the MFA’s collection, as well as for such other renowned works as Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass (both now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris).

Victorine Louise Meurent (February 18, 1844 - March 17, 1927) was a French painter and a famous model for painters.

Although she is best known as the favourite model of Édouard Manet, she was also an artist in her own right who regularly exhibited at the prestigious Paris Salon.

Victorine Meurent | Autoportrait, 1876 | Boston Museum of Fine Arts