Description

Reading Together Artist Proof by P. Buckley Moss

Introduction

Reading Together Artist Proof by P. Buckley Moss is a 1990 limited-edition lithograph centered on three young women gathered around an open book. Moss places them within an intimate enclosure of delicate branches, vines, and softly layered pastel color, creating a scene in which companionship and storytelling become inseparable.

The open book anchors the composition. One figure holds or turns an oversized page while the others gather closely around it, transforming reading from a solitary activity into a shared experience. Muted lavender, dusty blue, gray-green, cream, and rose reinforce the gentle atmosphere.

This example is one of 25 Artist’s Proofs associated with an edition of 1,000 numbered prints. The image measures 10 × 9½ inches on 12 × 11½-inch paper. It is offered in new, mint condition with a Certificate of Authenticity for $250.

Story Behind the Artwork

No documented artist statement has been supplied explaining the identities of the three figures or the particular story they are reading. The website description should therefore preserve the openness of the scene rather than assigning the women a specific family relationship.

What Moss makes unmistakable is the act of gathering around a book.

The three figures form a gentle triangle, while the surrounding branches curve above and around them like a natural enclosure. Their attention converges on the large book below. Instead of illustrating reading as instruction or formal study, the composition emphasizes the social experience of sharing a story.

That distinction makes Reading Together especially relevant within Moss’s recurring exploration of childhood, books, learning, and stories passed between people.

Symbols & Meaning

An open book is widely associated with knowledge, imagination, memory, and storytelling. Here, however, its position between three people adds another dimension: knowledge and stories are being shared rather than kept to oneself.

The figures’ closeness can evoke companionship, while the enclosing branches give the gathering a protected, almost storybook quality.

The dramatically lifted page also suggests discovery—the simple anticipation of finding out what comes next.

These are visual and cultural interpretations rather than documented statements of Moss’s intention.

Artistic Details

Moss organizes Reading Together around a series of nested shapes. The softly defined outer field creates the first enclosure; arching branches establish another; and the three figures form an intimate grouping within it.

Their dark bonnets create three strong visual points across the middle of the composition. Muted gray-green clothing allows the warmer faces and reddish-brown hair to stand forward without disturbing the restrained palette.

The book provides the most playful element. Its exaggerated scale makes it impossible to overlook, while the lifted page creates a sweeping diagonal between the figures and the foreground. Small illustrated forms appear across the open pages, reinforcing the impression of an illustrated story without requiring the viewer to identify a particular book.

The surrounding branches are equally important. Their thin, calligraphic lines weave across the softly textured background, giving the composition the feeling of an illustration within an illustration.

Featured Master Collections

Primary Master Collection — Childhood & Storytelling

This is the strongest assignment. Canada Goose Gallery defines Childhood & Storytelling around books, reading, storytelling, learning, imagination, childhood memories, and stories shared across generations. Its approved representative works include Reading, Reading Lesson For A Brighter Tomorrow, Storytime Etching, Summer Story, The Evening Hour, The Old Library, Tales Retold, and A Reading Nook.

Supporting Master Collection — Rare & Remarkable

This particular example is an Artist’s Proof, one of 25 APs associated with the edition. Because CGG’s Rare & Remarkable framework specifically recognizes Artist’s Proofs as a relevant collector distinction, it is appropriate as a supporting collection for this offered impression.

A third Master Collection is unnecessary.

Decorating Ideas

The subdued lavender, dusty blue, gray-green, cream, and rose palette works particularly well in Traditional, Cottage, Collected Home, Nursery/Storybook, and Modern Traditional interiors.

Its near-square proportions make it easy to display in a reading nook, library, bedroom, study, family room, classroom-inspired space, or above a small writing desk or bookcase.

It would be particularly effective in a grouping devoted to Moss’s reading and storytelling subjects, where the AP status gives this example an additional collecting distinction.

Gift Ideas

Reading Together Artist Proof has especially natural connections to teachers, librarians, book lovers, grandparents, sisters, close friends, and families in which reading together has become a tradition.

It could also commemorate graduation, retirement from education or library work, a new baby’s growing library, or the relationship between someone who first shared books with a child and the reader that child became.

About the Edition

Reading Together was issued in 1990 as a numbered, limited-edition lithograph.

Numbered edition: 1,000
Artist’s Proofs: 25
Offered example: Artist’s Proof
Image size: 10 × 9½ inches
Paper size: 12 × 11½ inches
Orientation: Vertical / near-square
Condition: New / Mint
Certificate of Authenticity: Included
Current price: $250

The supplied photograph appears to show an AP notation near the lower margin, but its exact numbering should be transcribed from the physical print rather than inferred from the photograph.

🎨 Fun Fact:

The interactive book is far older than the modern children’s pop-up. Movable books have existed for more than 800 years, and their earliest audiences were often adults rather than children. Medieval and Renaissance readers encountered rotating paper wheels called volvelles, and later books used flaps and dimensional constructions to explain subjects ranging from astronomy and calendars to anatomy. Only later did movable books become strongly associated with children, storytelling, and entertainment. The fact concerns the history of books generally—not the specific book depicted in Reading Together—but it adds an unexpected dimension to Moss’s wonderfully oversized, visually animated open book.

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🖼️ Collector’s Insight:

Reading Together Artist Proof is distinctive because Moss makes the shared book the compositional center of the relationship between the three figures. Their faces and bodies form a close grouping, but the large open volume visually joins them, while its lifted page creates the strongest gesture in the lower half of the image. The surrounding branches then form another layer around the gathering, giving the scene the intimacy of a private storytelling world. For collectors interested in Moss’s treatment of reading and childhood, this particular impression adds the documented distinction of being one of only 25 Artist’s Proofs, making it especially appropriate alongside her other reading and storytelling subjects without requiring unsupported claims about demand or future value.

Why Buy from Canada Goose Gallery

Canada Goose Gallery provides collectors with documented information about P. Buckley Moss editions, formats, condition, and authentication so that distinctions such as a regular numbered print versus an Artist’s Proof remain clear.

This Reading Together example is identified as an Artist’s Proof, is offered in new, mint condition, and includes a Certificate of Authenticity.

Continue Exploring

Collectors drawn specifically to the reading and storytelling theme should continue with:

• Reading, Moss’s 1989 limited-edition lithograph
• Reading Lessons For A Brighter Tomorrow, a 1988 limited-edition lithograph.
• Reading To My Friends offers a later variation on the theme, combining a young reader with a cat.

The Childhood & Storytelling collection provides several additional closely related titles:

• Grandma’s Story
• Storyteller
• Quiet Time
• Storytime Etching
• Summer Story
• The Evening Hour
• The Old Library Artist Proof
• Tales Retold
• A Reading Nook

These are stronger recommendations than generic children’s prints because each continues the specific relationship between books, storytelling, learning, and shared experience established in Reading Together.

Suggested Categories & Subjects:

• P. Buckley Moss Fine Art Prints
• P. Buckley Moss Rare Prints
• The Collections Hub
• Artist Proofs
• Reading
• Children

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 “The story becomes a memory when we read it together.”