The Swiss artist Anton Graff painted the Reading Mary Magdalene inspired by the painting Magdalene by the Italian artist Antonio da Correggio, a High Renaissance representative. The last time the original source was seen in the middle of the 19th century — it was exhibited in the Dresden Art Gallery.

Mary Magdalene was among those who followed Jesus Christ. She is one of the most venerated Christian saints, a myrrh bearer. According to the Gospel, she was possessed by demons in her youth and was a whore. In Capernaum, Jesus healed Mary from seven demons. Filled with gratitude, she followed Christ, listened to His sermons, then witnessed His crucifixion, burial and resurrection.
Western art traditionally depicts Mary Magdalene with her hair loose and head uncovered, and a vessel of myrrh, with which she washed Jesus’ feet, next to her or in her hands. Graff’s Mary Magdalene is a repenting sinner. Semi-naked, in a simple cloak, she reads the Bible, unlike Correggio’s Magdalene, who looks at the viewer. There is the ever-present vessel of incense behind her.

Andy Warhol styled it for the Sans Souci Palace in 1986.

Graff made over 80 self-portraits. He gave originals and replicas to friends, clients and patrons, many of which diffused into private collections during the artist’s lifetime. The painter was interested in physiognomy, and self-portraits helped him to track changes in a human appearance. Exercises with his own face helped him to grasp defining features of facial expressions of those he painted. Graff preferred simple and natural postures, depicted hands and arms, shoulders and chest life-size, stepping away from distortion and allegorical elements. At the end of his life, he became interested in landscapes akin to late Impressionism, although he believed that ‘a still landscape is not as easy to meet as a man with a continuously changing head’.