Art Historian, Romy Silver-Kohn: Hi, my name is Romy, and I’m here with my daughter. Today, we’re going to talk about Lucie Cousturier’s Woman Reading.
Marin, what do you notice about this painting?
Marin: It’s made out of dots. I didn’t notice all the dots, but when you get closer, there are a lot.
Romy Silver-Kohn: That's because it’s a technique called pointillism, where artists apply all these tiny little dabs of color. They knew that when we were far away from the artwork, our eyes would blend them together, and that when we got really close up to the artwork, we would see all of them individually.
What do you think are the challenges that you would face if you were making a work like this?
Marin: It would take a really long time, and it would be hard remembering where everything would be.
Romy Silver-Kohn: I was just thinking that too, that maybe I would want to use graph paper to sketch an outline ahead of time to have the colors in all the different spots.
For Lucie Cousturier, how do you think she felt about reading?
Marin: I think she was very pro.
Romy Silver-Kohn: I agree with you. I think she probably loved to read herself.
Now that you can read, what does being able to read give you access to?
Marin: Being able to understand people more.
Romy Silver-Kohn: I think that’s a really good point. When I can read about someone else’s perspective, I can understand the world a lot better.