JACQUES RIZO (1849-1926), IAKOVOS RIZOS KNOWN AS WOMAN READING Oil on canvas Signed lower left Oil on canvas; signed lower left 27.5 X 36 CM - 10 7/8 X 14 1/8 IN. Jacques Rizo dit Iakovos Rizos (1849-1926) was a painter of Greek origin who made his artistic career in Paris. A pupil of Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts, he was a friend of Renoir and admired the work of Edgar Degas. Although a contemporary of the Impressionists, he followed the precepts of French academicism to a greater extent. Jacques Rizo was recently highlighted at the "Paris-Athens" exhibition at the Louvre from September 30, 2021 to February 7, 2022. The painting Soirée athénienne, executed in 1897, was chosen for the exhibition poster. This work also won a silver medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. From the 1880s onwards, Jacques Rizo took the Athenian bourgeoisie as his subject of inspiration. The country and its capital were in a state of flux, as the War of Independence, which had ended in 1829, had reshuffled the cards of a new country to be built and a burgeoning bourgeoisie. The artist applied himself to depicting Athenian social life and intellectual exchanges, as well as more intimate visions. Particular attention is paid to the fabrics of dresses and the accessories of bourgeois women. The painting Woman Reading depicts an intimate scene of bourgeois daily life. The reader is lying in a four-poster bed with heavy red curtains. The vaporous white of the sheets and dress, and Jacques Rizo's loose brushstrokes, highlight the female figure, her red book and her bracelet. This scene is reminiscent of Lady Reclining on a Sofa, painted between 1885 and 1890 and now in the National Gallery in Athens.