# @sfmoma on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DFJKk_4hWSI
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33376588-sfmoma-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/134b148cd3.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-01-22T21:37:16.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** SFMOMA (@sfmoma) — https://gondola.cc/sfmoma

## Caption

Do you know who is depicted in Gerhard Richter’s “Lesende (Reader)” (1994)?

This is Sabine Moritz-Richter, who was Gerhard Richter’s wife at the time this was made. He painted it from a picture he took of her when they first fell in love. You can sense his affection in the way he softly painted every little detail: like the way the sunlight whites out part of her necklace, or the tiny hairs that curl beneath her ponytail. You could say this is a romantic painting. And yet, Richter observes her from a distance. 

He didn’t title the work “Sabine.” He called it “Lesende” or “reader.” Her image captivated him—first and foremost, as a painter. What its meaning may be, he keeps to himself. He once said, “…photographs, private ones and others, keep appearing that fascinate me so much that I want to paint them. And sometimes the real meaning these images have for me only becomes apparent later.”

📍 Plan your visit to see “Lesende (Reader)” and more works by Richter at the link in bio.

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[Gerhard Richter, “Lesende (Reader),” 1994 Collection SFMOMA, Purchase through the gifts of Mimi and Peter Haas and Helen and Charles Schwab, and the Accessions Committee Fund: Barbara and Gerson Bakar, Collectors Forum, Evelyn D. Haas, Elaine McKeon, Byron R. Meyer, Modern Art Council, Christine and Michael Murray, Nancy and Steven Oliver, Leanne B. Roberts, Madeleine H. Russell, Danielle and Brooks Walker, Jr., Phyllis C. Wattis, and Pat and Bill Wilson © Gerhard Richter] #GerhardRichter #Photorealism #BayArea #SanFrancisco #OnlyinSF

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## Tags

gerhardrichter, sanfrancisco, bayarea, photorealism, onlyinsf

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