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La loge

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1874

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's La loge, dated 1874, shows a fashionably dressed couple in a theatre box, caught between watching and being watched. The painting belongs to the Courtauld Gallery of the Courtauld Institute of Art, where its close-up view of Parisian evening life rewards a slow, careful look.

Where to see it

La loge is in the collection of the Courtauld Gallery (Courtauld Institute of Art), and the fact sheet gives the Courtauld Gallery as its location. Display arrangements can change because of rehangs, conservation work or loans, so check the Courtauld Gallery's official website for the painting's current display status, opening hours and ticketing before you plan your visit. At 80 x 63.5 cm, the canvas is a moderate size. You can view the whole composition from a few steps back, then move closer to study the brushwork.

What to look for in person

The power of black

Start with the woman's striped dress. Renoir builds it from bold bands of black and white, and the black is rich and varied rather than flat. Look at how the dark stripes shift in tone as they fold and turn. Notice how they frame the pale skin of her face, neck and shoulders. Many Impressionists are associated with avoiding black, so this confident use of it is worth seeing in person. Step close and you can see touches of colour working inside the dark areas.

Two ways of looking

The painting is built around looking. The woman sits at the front of the box with opera glasses lowered in her gloved hand, and her gaze meets the viewer fairly directly. Behind her, the man raises his own glasses and looks elsewhere, perhaps at the audience rather than the stage. Spend a moment moving between the two figures. Renoir sets up a quiet contrast between being on display and observing others, which is central to the theatre box as a social space.

Soft touches and fine details

Come closer to see how Renoir handles surfaces. The flowers at the woman's bodice and in her hair, her pearls, and the delicate gloves are suggested with quick, feathery strokes rather than sharp outlines. Her face is modelled softly, with warm flesh tones set against the cool whites of the dress. Compare this careful softness with the looser, sketchier treatment of the man and the box interior. The shift helps keep your attention on her.

About the painting

La loge, dated 1874, comes from the early years of the movement that became known as Impressionism, when Renoir and his colleagues were painting modern Parisian life. Its subject is the theatre box, or loge. In the city's theatres and opera houses, the audience in these boxes was often as much on show as the performance. Renoir crops the scene tightly, so the viewer seems to stand just in front of the box, close enough to meet the woman's gaze. The painting is widely recognised as one of the works Renoir showed at the first group exhibition of the Impressionists in Paris in 1874. Displaying a contemporary subject like this, rather than a historical or mythological scene, reflected the group's interest in everyday modern life. Today the canvas, measuring 80 x 63.5 cm, belongs to the Courtauld Gallery of the Courtauld Institute of Art. In front of the painting, it helps to think of it as a study in contrasts. There is dark against light in the striped dress and pale skin. There is attention against distraction in the two figures' different ways of looking. And there is careful finish against loose suggestion in the brushwork. Renoir's handling of black is often singled out, because it shows how richly the colour could be used within an Impressionist palette. The painting also reflects Renoir's lasting interest in fashion, social pleasure and the depiction of women in modern settings. Viewers who know his later, softer and more rounded figure paintings may find this earlier work crisper and more restrained.

Key facts

More by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

• La Balançoire — Musée d'Orsay
• Jean Renoir sewing
• Luncheon of the Boating Party
• The Great Bathers — Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Dance in the City — Musée d'Orsay
• Girls at the Piano — Musée d'Orsay
• La Liseuse — Musée d'Orsay
• Torse, effet de soleil — Musée d'Orsay
• Mlle Irene Cahen d'Anvers
• Dance at Bougival — Museum of Fine Arts Boston
• Bather with a Griffon Dog
• Two Sisters — Art Institute of Chicago

Sources

• Wikidata Q74339
• courtauld.ac.uk
• virtualtour.courtauld.ac.uk