Ein Buch Lesen (Reading a Book). Rudolf Ernst (Austrian, 1854-1932). Oil on canvas.
Ernst joined the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at the age of 15. He traveled to Rome to study the representation of Italian landscapes and classical romantic figures. Prior to 1885 he painted mainly portraits, images of children and genre scenes. After, he began to create orientalist paintings, paintings for which achieved great fame as an artist.